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Production Over Safety?

Production Over Safety?
by Carol Patton

A new survey uncovers employees' disturbing perceptions about job safety. What can HR do to ensure productivity and safety are equally balanced in the workplace?

Do your employees believe that completing job tasks is more important than workplace safety?

A surprising number do, according to a new survey. Based on the responses of 2,000 workers participating in an online survey conducted earlier this year by the National Safety Council, more than one-third (36 percent) strongly or somewhat agreed that "safety takes a back seat" to completing job tasks.

Some of these workers have high-risk jobs. Consider that 68 percent hold positions in agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting; 58 percent are in construction, and 45 percent work in manufacturing or an industrial facility.

"It's a bit shocking even for me as a safety professional to think that more than one-third of employees say safety takes a back seat to productivity," says John Dony, director of both the Campbell Institute and environmental, health and safety at NSC in Itasca, Ill. "This is a fundamental issue for HR folks as well as safety folks."

Employee perceptions about job safety are disturbing. According to the survey, 32 percent are afraid to report safety issues; 30 percent agreed that employees are resistant to working safely, and 39 percent agreed that management only does the minimum required by law regarding employee safety. Ironically, 71 percent stated that safety training is part of employee orientation and 68 percent believe employees are well-trained in emergency practices.

Dony says HR professionals can help elevate workplace safety by talking about the importance of safety during employee performance evaluations and praising employees for performing a job task safely.

"Safety has to be driven culturally, not just looking at a bar chart," he says, explaining that establishing a safe workplace culture involves much more than tracking the number of onsite employee accidents or injuries every year. "Just over half -- 62 percent -- say all employees are involved in solving safety issues. That's a message for safety and HR professionals to think about how they're involving folks at all levels of the organization."

Still, does higher productivity lead to more employee injuries and accidents?

Read full article on HumanResourceExecutive.