Most larger companies with exceptional occupational safety and health programs have established formal policies for managing change.  They realize, the importance of incorporating safety and health considerations into any significant change that takes place in the workplace.

At one company I worked at, I was required to conduct a formal safety and heath review on any capital expenditure greater than $5,000, and on any new chemical that was introduced into the workplace.

The University of Windsor has an excellent change management policy and form.  If your company does not have a change management process, you might want to consider developing one similar to the University of Windsor’s.

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An equipment operator in the Canadian oil sands tells the story of being trapped in the cab of a burning haul truck. Determined not to die there, and despite the terrible realization that any escape attempt is going to involve burns, he kicks open the door, staggers across the deck of the truck and leaps twenty feet off the burning equipment. In the process he’s severely burned in the face, ears and hands, but is saved from further burns by his coveralls. We’ll leave him there and finish his story in a moment.

Did divine intervention save the day? Was his will to live the factor that saved him? Did the money and efforts invested by his employer pay off? Can we ever really determine how much of each made the difference?

Every day safety professionals and leaders work tirelessly to prevent just such events from occurring. But what if some of the basic assumptions we’ve been making were actually working against us without our even knowing? Have we been presuming too much?

Even the most devout believer in God would agree that presuming to be god-like is offensive. It implies the height of arrogance or folly. There’s the old joke about the person rudely pushing through the cafeteria line in heaven, “Oh that’s God, some days he thinks he’s a doctor.” Or think of those despotic leaders who drive their countries to ruin under such delusions.

The “God Delusion” of the Safety Profession refers not to a raging egotism, but rather to those assumptions that are taken for granted within the profession – assumptions that may actually mitigate against their own success. For example, thirty years ago the “conventional wisdom” for back pain was to rest in bed for two weeks, an assumption long since abandoned in favor of appropriate activity, following investigation to rule out significant disease.

It’s time to scrutinize other conventional wisdom that has dogged the profession for too many years, in particular that tired old chestnut “All accidents are preventable”. Has anyone uttered this with even a moment’s consideration of its potential negative impact?

To come to grips with that assertion, we need to examine how language creates and influences reality and the implications of uttering some of our favorite, yet clumsy, safety slogans.

Studies of language have shown that the richness or paucity of concepts within a language shape reality for its native speakers. Italian, for example, contains many more references to emotional states than does German. When a concept is not contained within the language it is simply not part of the reality of its’ speakers. So our stereotypes of the fiery, passionate Italian temperament or the cool, logical German temperament reflect what concepts those languages make available to their speakers.

The brain is literal. Attention goes where it’s directed. Since the unconscious does not process negation, we know that directives, safety or otherwise, cannot be delivered as negative statements. Try “not” to think about an elephant, or the color blue. Despite the directive to “not” think about them, the only way the brain can process that is to think about an elephant or the color blue. As the magician knows all too well, attention goes where it is directed both verbally and non- verbally. Telling a child “Don’t spill your milk” only brings spilt milk to mind and, not surprisingly, you know what happens next. Instead we have to say “Grip the glass firmly.” or “Hang onto the cup.” Imagine saying something silly like, “Don’t forget your safety equipment.” Well, you get the picture.

The real “juice” in communication is in the non-verbals, in the face, the gestures and other body movements. But let’s focus on the verbal aspects of how we direct attention inappropriately in safety situations through the invocation of a phenomenon known as “presuppositions”.

A presupposition is a phrase with an embedded assumption. When someone approaches and I say “Can I help you?” it presupposes that I am the helper, that she is helpless, and that I am in charge of the helping process. As soon as she utters a single syllable in response, at the unconscious level she’s “bought into” this relationship of dependency. I’ve just created a dependent worker, or client or child. It’s much better to simply say, “What’s up?” – no presupposition of dependency implied.

So off-putting is the “Can I help you?” comment to retail customers, to have to depend on the store clerk, that retail has changed that presupposition to one you’ve heard so many times you’re sick of it – “Are you finding everything you need today?” Now “you’re” finding it, not just some things but “everything” and not just stuff you want but things you “need” – clever, albeit overused.

Occupational safety is unfortunately loaded with such well meaning but clumsy use of language – these negative presuppositions. For example “Safety is Job 1.” Of course it’s not. But when you use an ordinal reference like “1″, then other concerns such as production, service, quality, or environment, must necessarily be further down the numerical order, number 2, 17, 35 or 64. Then when you ask someone to focus on production, you know the response you’re going to get – “Well obviously you don’t believe in safety.” Now conflict has been opened up and the credibility of the leader to apply future influence begins to erode. Consider saying, “Around here safety, production, service, quality and environment are all important and we have to balance them appropriately.”

Or take that other stinker “Is it safe?” It’s a one-way ticket to conflict in the workplace. Because it contains the verb “is” from “to be”, there are only two

choices, either you “are” or you “aren’t”. So linguistically there can only be two answers, “yes” or “no”. Yet there is no safety decision in the world that’s yes or no. Every safety decision at work or at home is a business decision that balances Cost, Risk and Benefit. Direct attention appropriately by asking “Have you done a risk assessment?” or, “Is the risk acceptable?” or, “What does a cost- benefit analysis say about the effectiveness of the various proposed solutions?”

When you ask “Is it safe?” you engage risk perception and opinion, but not risk assessment.

Let’s say a worker, in previous jobs and at home, has been up and down ladders thousands of times. Seldom did they get someone to hold the base. They knew enough to position the base in relation to the height, how to do a leg lock on the ladder, how to maintain three point contact and how to maintain a center of balance. In all those real world exposures they learned that they can do this safely without someone holding the base. Then they go to work for an employer whose rule is to have the base held. One day they walk half way across the plant to do a brief job but forget to bring someone to hold the base. Eager to get the job done, up they scamper, do the job and descend just as a supervisor rounds the corner and asks, ” Is that safe?” Now the supervisor opened up a Pandora’s box of opinion, which can never be wrong. The worker considers all their life experience (because attention goes where it’s directed) and they say, “Yes, it is.” The response? “That’ll be three days off without pay.” And you can kiss future cooperation goodbye when punishment is associated with what was thought to be acting safely.

Which returns us to the worker peering down from atop the ladder. Instead of asking that rhetorical question that ultimately undercuts your authority, say, “That violates our standard and it’s not forgivable. There’s a consequence.” Stay away from invoking opinions about “safety-ness”. It’s an opinion trap. We manage performance, not opinion or attitudes.

Keep in mind that “we get the people we deserve” as leaders and as parents because we are constantly shaping the reality of how people experience us and the organization through the ways that we communicate both verbally and non- verbally.

Well that brings us to the grand daddy of all presuppositions: All accidents are preventable.

If that ‘s indeed true, it presupposes that we must be in control of every internal factor – state of mind, attention direction, motivation or attitude – within every individual performer. It also assumes we must be in control of every external factor – weather, environment, equipment, traffic design – in all circumstances. In other words, here it comes, we must be God, or at the very least god-like. And although most of the workplace environment is indeed available to our control, the internal workings of the human element are not, for one important reason – we do not have permission in the workplace to fool around in people’s heads. We do when they willingly come to counseling or coaching, but not otherwise.

In the perfect, god-like hindsight of investigations we actually begin to believe our delusion. If perfect hindsight allowed us perfect foresight to control all variables then maybe that would be true. But it’s not.

With environmental and equipment design factors, that hindsight has served us well and continues to do so. Yet in the area of human performance it simply has not worked. And even in terms of process controls, although hindsight has been successful to a point, many in the workplace now suggest that we may have gone too far, overproducing procedures, guards and personal protective equipment to the point where people actually struggle to get the work done. A recent parliamentary address in the United Kingdom specifically expressed concern regarding health and safety standards.

The real problem with “all accidents are preventable” is blame. If the statement is true and an accident occurs, most people tend to assume “Then I must be to blame.” And people who feel blamed are no longer in a resourceful state to contribute, to be open and honest in investigations, or to freely offer cooperation going forward.

So let’s return to our burned operator in the oil sands. When repeatedly questioned in the investigation, what else could you have to done to prevent this, he admits that at that point he felt like he should have just stayed in the cab and accepted his fate. That’s surely not the goal of our well-intentioned investigations.

Consider also that workers know all too well that instead of all accidents being preventable, “s#*t happens”. Despite our best attempts to control everything, we simply don’t have that god-like power. Things will fail, errors will be made. In fact an absence of errors generally indicates an absence of learning and growth. Whenever a leader asserts “all accidents are preventable” their credibility suffers because the statement flies in the face of the workers’ experience of reality. When credibility suffers, the power to positively influence diminishes.

Clearly the sector that offers the best of safety records, and has avoided the “blame” response, is aviation. Pilots and flight crews freely admit errors, creating a culture that encourages the learning needed to prevent them in the future.

Consider culture as a set of behaviors that a specific group has come to think of as normal. Despite claims that “we’re not looking for blame” (Don’t think about an elephant), most organizations haven’t come close to what aviation has achieved. To change culture is not some mysterious secret, we simply start by changing our standards for acceptable and unacceptable behaviors, specifically regarding blame and consequence.

The best application of our professional “god-ness” is to apply the principle of forgiveness. Let’s make those few “deadly sins”, the ones that regulators won’t tolerate violations of, severely punishable as we do with theft in the workplace. But make everything else forgivable. S#*t happens. Errors occur. Without errors there is no learning. Forgiveness brings honesty, learning, and progress towards injury reduction.

Organization leaders and Safety Professionals need the courage to challenge conventional wisdom and to use language professionally. Stop saying all accidents are preventable. Commit instead to lowering risk to acceptable levels, reducing frequency and severity of incidents, accepting error as part of the human condition, and finding the grace of forgiveness.

© Gary Phillips

Gary Phillips, the author of this article, lives in Thunder Bay Ontario. Gary is a Canadian Registered Safety Professional (CRS), a Certified Human Resource Professional (CHRP), MA, and a Master Licensed Trainer in the field of NeuroLinguistic Programming. For the last 30 years Gary has serviced consulting clients across Canada, the United States, New Zealand and Australia.  In 2008 he published “The Art of Safety“.  His email address is – nwtd@tbaytel.net

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The A M Best company produces some of the best, industry-specific, safety guidelines available anywhere.   These are “must have” references for every safety professional!  Each publication contains a:

• profile of that industry and its’ common operations.
• hazard index that analyzes fire, liability, auto and workers compensation risks.  
• discussions of common safety and health exposures and controls.
• listing of applicable OSHA standards.
• detailed on-site safety inspection checklists.

These industry specific guides can be purchased and downloaded for only $42.50 each!   To review an alphabetical listing of the 578 industries A M Best has loss control guidelines on click here.

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We can learn much by reviewing accident investigation reports on serious injury accidents!   By understand the causes of horrible accidents that have already occurred we can take steps to prevent similar accidents from happening in the future.  I like to say “what has happened can happen“, and “those who do not understand the past are doomed to repeat it“.

Below are links to hundreds of industry specific accident alerts.  These alerts are based upon actual accident investigation reports.  They review the causes of serious accidents and suggest actions that can be taken to prevent their recurrence.

• Hazard alerts – by topic
• NIOSH fatality assessment & control evaluation (FACE) reports – by industry
• FACE reports – by state
• OSHA fatality and catastrophe investigation summaries (by industry SIC)
• Safety and health alerts by Industry (a-g)
• Safety and health alerts by industry (h-z)
• U.S. Chemical Safety Board accident investigation videos
• The weekly toll

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A contractor is anyone who comes onto your premises to perform work; and is not an employee, visitor, or volunteer.   Typical contractors include: plumbers, electricians, roofers, HVAC, landscapers, cafeteria workers, temp employees, lawn mowers, snow removal services, and custodial services.

If a contractors’ employee working on your premises is hurt on-the-job, you could end up paying for the injury!   To protect yourself from this exposure, be sure to get a certificate of insurance from all contractors before hiring them.   

A certificate of insurance verifies that the contractor has both liability insurance and workers compensation (WC)  insurance.  The first time you get a certificate of insurance, show it to your insurance agent and ask them to review it with you.  Among other things, the agent will evaluate: the financial strength of the contractors’ insurance company, the adequacy of the limits, and the effective dates.

Contractors are regularly asked for certificates of insurance, and will be happy to give you one at no cost.   It is especially important to get them from smaller contractors, because they are more likely not to have insurance than a larger company.   Also, if you use temp workers, be sure to get a certificate of insurance from the temporary employment agency. 

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Here are nine strategies for reducing your workers compensation insurance premiums.  Apply them at your company and see your insurance costs go down!  Some of these strategies are controversial, but in todays’ challenging business environment one needs to be creative and open to trying something new.

• Your insurance agents’ commission may be negotiable.  If you work with an independent agent, don’t be shy about asking what their commission is.    It can vary from 5 to 15 percent; with 12% being about the average.   One strategy to achieve a reduction might be to ask your agent if they’d reduce their commission if you received fewer services.  For example, if the agent normally provides claims and loss control advice to your company,  ask what the savings would be if you did not take those services in the upcoming year.
• Buy your workers compensation insurance from the very largest independent insurance agency in your area.   The larger the agency, the more clout they will have with the insurance companies that they represent.  For example, if you ever get into a disagreement with your insurance company on: workers compensation classification codes, claims reserves, loss control service, or payment schedules, an agency with $1,000,000 in business with your insurance carrier will have much more leverage to get the insurance company to give you what you want than an agency that does only $50,000 in business with your insurance carrier.
• Avoid lost time accidents at all costs.   Lost time claims have a greater impact on your experience modifier than do medical only claims.   Be fanatical about returning injured employees to light duty to avoid lost time.   Let the treating physicians know right away that you can accommodate any form of light duty (including sedentary work).   If the employee can’t drive a car because of the medications they are on, hire a taxi to take the injured employee to and from work.    Be creative in finding ways to avoid lost time.
• Don’t over-report claims.  Insurance companies sometimes encourage insureds to report all claims to them, even the really small ones that do not require a doctors attention (i.e. first aid cases).   They say, report these little claims  because if the injury gets worse and requires medical treatment they will already have it on record.  Don’t do it!  Never report any more claims to the insurance company than you are legally required to.   The number of claims you report will be taken into consideration when determining your insurance premium for the next year.
• Competition is a good thing – periodically shop your insurance.   Get insurance quotes from other agents and insurance companies.  If your current agent and insurer know that they’ve got competition, they will “sharpen their pencils” and give you their lowest pricing.
• Fight to get outstanding claim “reserves” reduced or eliminated.   Ask your agent when the reserves are put into your new experience modifier calculations.    Two months before that date ask for a new loss run.   Review every claims reserve on that loss run.   If your agent has a claims expert on staff, get them to help you with this “reserve analysis”.    Don’t be shy about asking the insurance company to justify a reserve if you believe it to be too high.   Argue and negotiate the reserve down to a more realistic figure.
• Roll out the “red carpet” when the insurance company sends a loss control representative to your facility.   These safety inspectors are the “eyes and ears” of the underwriters.  How they rate your account will have a bearing on the premium you pay!  When the insurance loss control person shows up:  
  • make the inspector feel welcome – treat them like your largest customer
  • clean up all areas
  • show them well documented safety policies & procedures
  • make sure all employees are wearing the required personal protective equipment
  • express appreciation for their recommendations
  • thank them for their help
  • promptly follow up on their suggestions
• Partially self-insure your claims.  Ask your agent if you are eligible for a “loss responsive” insurance plan (e.g. retrospective rating program,  deductibles, dividend, self insured retention).
• Get certificates of insurance from all of your contractors and from the temporary employment agency you use.  If you do not, you may be required to pay WC insurance on these people.
• Never terminate, fire, or lay-off an employee with an open workers compensation claim.  Wait for the claim to close and then do what you need to do.  I know of a number of cases where employees with open workers compensation claims were laid-off.  The ultimate value of these claims skyrocketed when the disabled employee was either unable to find work or was granted lavish education and retraining benefits at the company’s expense.

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Getting an injured worker back to work as soon as possible after an on-the-job injury is an important way to control the cost of a workers compensation claim.   Offering  light duty to an employee who is released to return to work with medical restrictions can reduce the impact of that claim on future insurance premiums by 70%!  

The first step in a light duty program needs to take place before the injury occurs – establish a relationship with a medical provider.  Your medical provider needs to know that your company will accommodate “any” light duty that might be assigned to an injured worker – including seated work, one-handed work, and lifting restrictions.  Now, when an injury accident occurs, your medical provider will be more inclined to assign light duty restrictions to the injured employee rather than lost time.

Bringing an injured employee back to light duty not only reduces workers compensation costs, but it also speeds up recovery, and improves worker moral.  Larger companies have long recognized these benefits and use light duty whenever they can.

Smaller companies often resist returning injured employees to light duty because they do not see the economic benefits of doing so, and they claim that light duty jobs are not available. 

Every company has light duty jobs.  When assigning an injured employee to a light duty job make sure that the job meets the doctors’ restrictions.  Below is a list of light duty tasks that injured workers are often assigned to:  

• Security guard 
• Paint aisle markings
• Inventory parts, supplies, and/or tools 
• Pick up trash in yard and lot
• Inspect fire extinguishers & eye washes
• Replenish first aid cabinets
• Perform assembly
• Complete a safety inspection
• Drive a fork truck
• Sort & deliver mail
• Work in tool room
• Make telephone calls / answer telephones
• Order supplies
• Shipping (labeling & wrapping)
• Train new employees
• Drive a vehicle, run errands
• Do light housekeeping and dusting
• Perform quality control inspections
• Answer telephones
• File paperwork
• Shred documents
• Complete safety training
• Update MSDS manuals
• Sweeping 
• Wash company vehicles
• Mow lawns with riding lawn mower
• Update safety bulletin board
• Clean tools
• Apply ice melter during winter months
• Inspect flooring for need for maintenance or cleaning
• Create or re-write evacuation maps
• Work normal job but slower
• Work normal job but with specific limitations-

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A fundamental management system is called Plan-Do-Check-Act (or PDCA).  Most safety professionals use it every day, often without even knowing they are using it.  If you have never studied this key management technique or are looking for a good refresher course in it,  here’s a link to an article and a short free course that you can view.

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The Insurance Information Institute has published an interesting table at the bottom of this page that shows 2009/2010 U.S. workplace deaths by cause.  Some of you may be surprised by the results!

The top two causes accounted for 57% of all work related fatalities!  They are vehicle accidents (39%) and assaults/violence/homicides (18%).  If you have drivers at your company (even casual drivers like sales persons) you should have a comprehensive drivers safety program in place to protect these workers.

The third and forth leading causes were contact with equipment (16%) and falls (14%).

These four causes of fatal accidents accounted for 87% of all fatal accidents in 2009 and 2010.  Of course these percentages will vary by type of industry and location.  However, anyone interested in preventing serious on-the-job injuries would do well to evaluate the following exposures at their company:

• Driving (including occasional driving)
• Assault/violence/homicide (especially armed robbery)
• Contact with equipment (e.g. guarding, electrical, lockout tagout,crushed by)
• Falls (primarily falls from elevation)

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Business Insurance is the leading source of insurance news for executives and risk managers.   It covers news and analysis about the legislative, legal, and insurance market issues that affect todays’ businesses.  

They have a free, online, workers compensation page that address strategies for reducing workers compensation claims and claim costs, and promotes workplace safety interventions.

Sign up here to receive their free: weekly articles, alerts, and white papers.

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