Ask the Business Doctor - My company is basically compliant with all safety regulations...

Question: My company is basically compliant with all the safety regulations yet we still have a very high incident rate. What else should we be doing? Linda M., Buffalo, NY

Answer:

The problem you are facing is not uncommon. Your incidents are likely to be symptomatic of root causes that may not be related to safety conditions. Assess your organization for unaddressed challenges in the following areas:

Management/labor relations:

Is the relationship between management and employees strained due to disciplinary actions (perceived as too much, too little, or inequitable), supervisory issues, communication problems, etc.?

Employees, believing that they are not being heard, may try alternate courses of action to raise a flag in order to get issues addressed.

Employee assistance program:

Do you have an effective employee assistance program? Employees may need time off to deal with personal issues such as divorce or financial problems and the emotional challenges that accompany these concerns. In this case, employees could see time off due to a safety incident as providing them with time and finances to deal with these concerns. An effective EAP can help employees to cope while keeping them working.

Substance abuse:

Are you randomly drug testing your workforce? Are you testing after a safety incident? Substance abuse can affect incident rates because employees need time off to cope with the symptoms of abuse and may see an incident as an alternative to using 'sick-days.' Also, they may be more 'accident-prone' if the drugs are in their system while they are at work.

Workplace stress:

What's the work environment like? Are unrealistic due dates, little co-operation between work groups, overtime, or maybe even layoffs creating high levels of stress at work? Employees who need a break from this tension may find safety incidents with their associated time off from work to be an appealing alternative to dealing with this daily stress.

Other non-safety related business challenges can be demonstrating themselves as safety incidents. Assess your organization holistically to identify the root cause.

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