work comp – Page 9 – Risk Management 365

Creating a Safety Culture

Why do you want a strong safety culture?

It has been observed at the OSHA VPP sites and confirmed by independent research that developing strong safety cultures have the single greatest impact on accident reduction of any process. It is for this single reason that developing these cultures should be top priority for all managers and supervisors.

What is a safety culture – how will it impact my company?

Safety cultures consist of shared beliefs, practices, and attitudes that exist at an establishment. Culture is the atmosphere created by those beliefs, attitudes, etc., which shape our behavior. An organizations safety culture is the result of a number of factors such as:

Management and employee norms, assumptions and beliefs;
Management and employee attitudes;
Values, myths, stories;
Policies and procedures;
Supervisor priorities, responsibilities and accountability;
Production and bottom line pressures vs. quality issues;
Actions or lack of action to correct unsafe behaviors;
Employee training and motivation; and
Employee involvement or “buy-in.”

via Safety and Health Management Systems eTool | Module 4: Creating Change – Safety and Health Program Management: Fact Sheets: Creating a Safety Culture.

Danger – Confined Space

Many workplaces contain spaces that are considered “confined” because their configurations hinder the activities of employees who must enter, work in, and exit them. A confined space has limited or restricted means for entry or exit, and it is not designed for continuous employee occupancy. Confined spaces include, but are not limited to underground vaults, tanks, storage bins, manholes, pits, silos, process vessels, and pipelines. OSHA uses the term “permit-required confined space” (permit space) to describe a confined space that has one or more of the following characteristics: contains or has the potential to contain a hazardous atmosphere; contains a material that has the potential to engulf an entrant; has walls that converge inward or floors that slope downward and taper into a smaller area which could trap or asphyxiate an entrant; or contains any other recognized safety or health hazard, such as unguarded machinery, exposed live wires, or heat stress.

via Safety and Health Topics | Confined Spaces.

Risk Management 365

This is post number 365 since I launched this blog a year ago. To date we have had over 8000 views and growing every day.

So what is Risk Management 365 anyway? It’s following a 5 step process of managing risk 365 days a year not just buying insurance once a year. Insurance is NOT risk management ! There is no amount of insurance that can reverse a serious injury or death of a father, grandmother, son or grandchild. We live in a dangerous unhealthy world but though education and support from committed employers and engaged employees and their families we are making a difference. How many people quit texting while driving or began a regular exercise program after reading about it in this blog? How many children now wear a helmet when riding their bike? How many people recognized the signs off a heart attack and got treatment? If you have I would love to hear from you.

Our mission is “Keeping employees and their families healthy and safe at home and at work.”

Learn more about Ottawa Kent and the Risk Management 365 process at www.ottawakent.com

Protect Your Coworker’s – Keep Them Safe

Protect coworkers from deadly distractions. Improve your own safety awareness. Have no regrets. These are just a few reasons why you should maintain a close watch on your fellow employees and ensure they are working safely.

Here are five reasons employees should watch out for each other’s safety:

1. When you keep an eye on other people’s safety, your own safety awareness improves.

2. Even “safe” workers can get distracted.

3. We’re all at risk of occasional cognitive failure.

4. You’ll never have to regret that you could have said something but didn’t.

5. It’s just the right thing to do.

via Safety 2012: Be Your Coworker’s Keeper | Safety content from EHS Today.

Process Safety Management

Unexpected releases of toxic, reactive, or flammable liquids and gases in processes involving highly hazardous chemicals have been reported for many years in various industries that use chemicals with such properties. Regardless of the industry that uses these highly hazardous chemicals, there is a potential for an accidental release any time they are not properly controlled, creating the possibility of disaster.

via Safety and Health Topics | Process Safety Management.

What is “Fall Protection” and why is it so important?

The leading cause of worker fatalities in construction work is from falls. In addition to the over 100 deaths per year caused by falls thousands more construction workers are injured each year by them, according to OSHA statistics. Therefore, the issues of fall protection and training are often large issues in construction site accident litigation.

via What is “Fall Protection” and why is it so important? – Starr Austen & Miller LLP.

Don’t Forget Lockout/Tagout

Picture yourself performing maintenance inside of a huge machine. Suddenly, the machine springs to life, powerful metal gears grinding around you, placing you in mortal danger. That is exactly the sort of terrifying scenario that lockout/tagout is meant to prevent. Lockout/tagout is a procedure to disable equipment to protect workers from either an unexpected release of energy or an accidental start-up while performing job activities.

via The keys to lockout/tagout.

Business Case for Safety and Health

Employers that invest in workplace safety and health can expect to reduce fatalities, injuries, and illnesses. This will result in cost savings in a variety of areas, such as lowering workers’ compensation costs and medical expenses, avoiding OSHA penalties, and reducing costs to train replacement employees and conduct accident investigations. In addition, employers often find that changes made to improve workplace safety and health can result in significant improvements to their organization’s productivity and financial performance.

via Business Case for Safety and Health – Benefits.

Safety and Health Add Value

Addressing safety and health issues in the workplace saves the employer money and adds value to the business. Recent estimates place the business costs associated with occupational injuries at close to $170 billion – expenditures that come straight out of company profits.

When workers stay whole and healthy, the direct cost-savings to businesses include:

lower workers’ compensation insurance costs;
reduced medical expenditures;
smaller expenditures for return-to-work programs;
fewer faulty products;
lower costs for job accommodations for injured workers;
less money spent for overtime benefits.

Safety and health also make big reductions in indirect costs, due to:

increased productivity;
higher quality products;
increased morale;
better labor/management relations;
reduced turnover;
better use of human resources.

Employees and their families benefit from safety and health because:

their incomes are protected;
their family lives are not hampered by injury;
they have less stress.

Simply put, protecting people on the job is in everyone’s best interest – our economy, our communities, our fellow workers and our families. Safety and health add value to businesses, workplaces and lives.

via Employee Health and Safety – SmallBusinessNotes.com.

Benefits of Risk Management

Risk management provides a clear and structured approach to identifying risks. Having a clear understanding of all risks allows an organization to measure and prioritize them and take the appropriate actions to reduce losses. Risk management has other benefits for an organization, including:

Saving resources: Time, assets, income, property and people are all valuable resources that can be saved if fewer claims occur.
Protecting the reputation and public image of the organization.
Preventing or reducing legal liability and increasing the stability of operations.
Protecting people from harm.
Protecting the environment.
Enhancing the ability to prepare for various circumstances.
Reducing liabilities.
Assisting in clearly defining insurance needs.

An effective risk management practice does not eliminate risks. However, having an effective and operational risk management practice shows an insurer that your organization is committed to loss reduction or prevention. It makes your organization a better risk to insure.

via Risk Management: Introduction.