Canadian Occupational Safety (COS) magazine is the premier workplace health and safety publication in Canada. We cover a wide range of topics ranging from office to heavy industry, and from general safety management to specific workplace hazards.
Issue link: https://digital.thesafetymag.com/i/358607
12 Canadian Occupational Safety www.cos-mag.com W hen talking about safety, everyone agrees it involves the reduction, if not the elimination, of risk and harm to exposed persons. For the most part, safety professionals have relied upon the hierarchy of controls to achieve this goal. is endeavor has not always been one hundred per cent eff ective. As a result, throughout the history of safety, various other means have been sug- gested, and o en implemented, either in addition to using or in lieu of, the hierarchy of controls. Many of these alternative means, however, though widely popular, have no valid evidence supporting their claims of effi cacy. We are now arriving at what has been an elusive answer to why the hierarchy of controls is not wholly eff ective in reducing risk and harm to employees. It involves understanding the process of communication, especially the mean- ing of the words being used. During the past 20 years, there has been increasing evidence of the role corporate or organizational culture plays in determining safety performance. A company's culture is described as what an organization says it values and how it acts on these values. For example, managers saying they believe in working safely yet stressing production over safety — encouraging shortcuts — are not acting in line with what they espouse as their values. is inconsistency generally leads employ- ees to distrust management. Safety performance does not only depend on the compliance-driven safety program. It also depends on the company and whether it encourages or hinders the safety program. erefore, the level of safety performance depends on the knowledge and expertise of the safety professional as well as the amount and type of commitment and support by the organization. From cultural and related research, two terms have emerged as directly relevant to the level of safety perfor- mance: organizational factors and psychosocial factors. Organizational factors relate to the structure of the organization, the formal hierarchy, including its reporting rela- tionships, budget, employee selection, length of hours employees work and other elements fundamental to the way it conducts business. Psychosocial factors refer to work relationships and employees' psychological responses to their work and working conditions. Due to the large and growing body of evidence related to psychosocial work- related safety and health, as well as the emerging and current regulatory land- scape, employers are becoming aware of their responsibilities in this area. An example is the new Canadian standard for employers to provide psychologi- cally safe workplaces. Although this standard is currently voluntary, it could be enforced through the general duty clause under OHS legislation. Many employers, and safety profes- sionals, may feel daunted by these new regulations requiring them to address issues that were formerly unchartered territory in business operations or safety programs. But as litigation and high awards continue, to do nothing will be far more expensive than nipping potential problems in the bud. In addition, and not insignifi cant, is the cost-benefi t derived such as improved quality, increased productivity, lowered occupational stress and higher safety performance. One of the major ways these regu- lations can be addressed is through integration among diff erent depart- ments and functions of the company. In reality, the physical and psycho- social environments already overlap. To ensure workplace conditions and psychosocial factors are conducive to optimal safety and organizational functioning, the two areas should be addressed simultaneously. To achieve optimal outcomes, whether in business operations or safety, employer responsibility should be to identify, assess and correct any interfering overlaps between the physical and psychological working environments. A primary question for safety professionals is how to integrate this additional knowledge with the way most safety programs usually operate. Initially, we need to examine the credentials of most OHS professionals. is credential generally relies upon "hard" science such as engineering, physics, biology, chemistry and statistics to provide a safe physical working environment. However, there is increasing evidence emphasizing the value of "soft" sciences such as social and organizational psychology. ere need to be ways to integrate these into the way safety professionals perform their responsibilities. To attain greater safety and orga- nizational performance, different perspectives from both the "hard" and "so " sciences must be shared and com- municated. e primary goal of both is to create safer and healthier workplaces. Information sharing leads to knowl- edge diversity which provides diff erent ways of looking at the world and solving common problems. If safety professionals, in conjunc- tion with management, incorporate the interrelated concepts of safety with organizational and psychosocial factors, they can help increase safety performance. Many management consultants are stressing the role of corporate culture and psychosocial factors in organizational functioning. For the most part, the safety function is not included. It is imperative safety professionals take an active role and be an integral part of this transition. Judith Erickson is the president of Erick- son Associates, a health and safety management consulting fi rm based in Plano, Texas. She can be contacted at erickassoc@aol.com. 90% of eye injuries are avoidable—but how? F.O. Safety Eyewear is a leading provider of Prescription and Non-Prescription safety eyewear for a few very key reasons: Full selection of quality sealed, close fitting and goggle prescription safety eyewear- proven to significantly reduce eye incidents. Traditional styles also available. Highly trained staff performing fittings to maximize the success of your program Wholly owned state of the art digital manufacturing lab—providing you high quality control and superior optics for maximum safety. Over 30 dispensing and retail locations AND the ability to come direct to your sites for program implementation and maintenance An unmatched commitment to ensuring our programs are quantifiably successful at reducing eye incidents and increasing employee compliance Cost savings to all—whether the program is employee or employer funded www.fosafetyeyewear.ca 1-855-527-3661—Contact us today to begin reducing eye incidents on your jobs tomorrow LEGAL CONNECTION I COMPENSATION WATCH BY JUDITH ERICKSON TRAINING The other side of safety management How organizational and psychosocial factors can help safety performance