Comments on: Has ‘zero’ become a dirty word in safety?

By: Captain Safety

Captain Safety — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 15:14:19 +0000

I would say that a safety culture is more important than a slogan. Anyone can say, “Safety First” but to really get employees on board, they need to know that you are sincerely looking out for their safety. I work for a Mechanical Contractor & we have some “old timers” that scoff at the safety policy, but for the most part, if your employees feel that you are on their side, they’ll cooperate with you in trying to establish a positive attitude throughout the company.

By: Marie-Claire Ross

Marie-Claire Ross — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 05:18:23 +0000

You’ve all made some good comments and this is a very interesting topic. i believe that the issue with Zero Injuries is purely semantic. And that is it focuses more on the word injuries than on what the company wants which is safety and workers going home to their families at the end of the day. So I believe a better slogan is “Safety First”. Or any other slogan that focuses on the behaviour you require, rather than the one you’re avoiding. It’s why slogans like “War on Drugs” aren’t effective. It puts attention on drugs, when it should put attention on the solution, not the problem.

By: alecfinn

alecfinn — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 15:17:06 +0000

Brad
OMG you make me feel better I have been though hell politics where I work but getting injured or ill on the job has always been treated seriously. When any incident occurs with a negative outcome for staff we examine our systems to see if we could do anything better to eliminate that in the future.

I believe that signing a wavier as you commented is a violation of your human rights a lawyer would know better. Also the whistle blower laws protect persons.

I know that using that avenue takes a long time but a year for a hand to heal and it still is not healed is appalling. I think I am not alone in being upset for you. That should have been reported and taken care of by WC (I am assuming it happened on the job).

The e-mail program sounds like a company defaming an employee…….It is my understanding that behavior is illegal in the US and many other nations. Also e-mail is forever just as writing is. You are right that 5-10 incidents a year in a very large company are a small number, something that is either suspect or a major accomplishment.

I wish you the best of luck and that all works out to your benefit. I also hope I am not the only person that finds your post unsetting to the max.

By: Brad Palford

Brad Palford — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 13:25:11 +0000

Well put Safetyace. I work at one of the largest companies in the world, with 5-10 recordable injuries per year in their North American plants. The metric is a sham. They’ve adopted a policy of “accountability”, using such tactics as emailing everyone in the organization with condescending comments related to the victim and other over the top tactics. We’re all required to sign pledges that we not listen to the car radio, even in our own personal cars during our time off. I busted my hand up last year, it still hasbn;t healed, and yet I can’t report it because reporting an injury puts your job on the line. This is the problem with making a god out of Zero, the obsession to reach Zero becomes can cause some to lose sight of what’s important. 5-10 injuries per year in a large organization is system noise, that’s a fact, more occur in my local gym in a couple of weeks. As is the case with most systems, ignoring facts germane to the system produces flawed models.

By: Safetyace

Safetyace — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 19:28:56 +0000

“Zero Injuries” is a result, not a goal. The goal is to work safely on every task, everytime, everyday. If you accomplish the goal, then zero injuries is a likely result.

If zero injuries was truly a goal. then you could cut corners, break rules, and take risks; but if by the grace of God, you managed to avoid an injury, you could be a hero! That makes no sense at all.

By: John Willwerth

John Willwerth — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 15:48:21 +0000

If zero is what we want why shouldn’t we go for it, why would we agree that it is OK that anyone is injured? The focus must be on success, we celebrate reporting, appropriate medical treatment, and root cause investigations. Zero is about showing that we care and if we care how can we accept anything less?

The well being of our team and the public guides all our actions.

By: Dave C

Dave C — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 22:54:17 +0000

I worked with a company that used “Target Zero”. This slogan doesnt imply that there will be no accidents but it DOES enforce a “goal”. Any slogan has to be backed with an effective safety management program. We actually worked 6 million mans hours over the course of several years without a single lost time injury . Yes there were a few minor recordables (cuts, strains, sprains). Everybody went home the same way they came to work. This was a large demolition, Hazmat clean-up, and steel erection project. A great accomplishment, to say the least. Im a believer in “Target Zero” utilizing the Integrated Safety Management System (ISMS).

By: Jack Harvey

Jack Harvey — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 14:33:08 +0000

Slogans are good, they give you a rally point. Zero accidents, Zero lost time accidents, Zero near misses, are only slogans, unless the worker buy into the program, a slogan has never stopped a person from falling. It takes the efforts of the workers to make a program work.

The biggest problem I see is that work is given out based on incident, lost time, or DART ratios that are all based on accidents and there is no way to cross check them, so one company can pad there ratio and get work and the company who does not is at a disadvantage. Companies safety programs should be judged by some other criterion.

By: Guest

Guest — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 14:28:04 +0000

If your goal isn’t zero what is your goal?
Even our Area OSHA office has taken on the goal of Zero, theirs is for fatalities for the entire area, but it is the same thing in philosophy.

If one of our Managers or Supervisors said that our goal was going to be to have less than 4 recordable injuries this year, our CEO would ask 4 of them to come up to the front of the room so he could smash their hand with a bat and get the 4 injuries out of the way so we could work the rest of the year without any injuries.

Zero is more of a mindset then it is a goal. If people don’t truly believe we can work without being injured, then they need to work somewhere else.

By: Willy

Willy — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 14:56:34 +0000

Sorry alicfinn, Not every company “must have ongoing safety training and audits” as you stated. Only the ones that choose to.

By: Steve Laren

Steve Laren — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 14:49:23 +0000

Our slogan is “Safety is no Accident”. By that, we mean your safety is not by accident, but rather by the employee’s deliberate attention to work safetly. We train, coach, and remind every employee that safety is a personal choice. It seems to work; as an industrial facility with 80 employees, we have gone over 4 years without a lost time accident.
I have a sign in my office which reads “Safety is Job 3″. As the company Safety Officer, I get a lot of funny reactions when people see the sign. But I can easily point out countless times people will do things just a little unsafe out of expediency. Grab a chair instead of getting a ladder, walk quickly past a hazard because they had forgotten their hard hat or safety glasses. We do it all the time, and at home as well. Acciddents are but a moment away; by ingoring the little ones you are inviting a big one. Make safety a habit you can live with.

By: Gigi

Gigi — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 14:07:14 +0000

Safety is not black and white. That to say that the “Zero Injuries” slogan (at least to me as a SH&E coordinator) does not mean promoting fear, no near misses, incidents , lack of mistakes or no need for improvements .
We don’t advertise “zero injuries” in our plant -we don’t even want to talk about it!!! but, it is where we envision the bar to be. Let’s mitigate, let’s change the culture , let’s do whatever we can do and hope for the best -no one getting hurt.

By: alecfinn

alecfinn — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 14:06:41 +0000

Zero Accidents or Safety First

These are just slogans it is the culture that has to be created to keep accidents and hopefully injuries at a minimum

It is the same thing for Pest Control a company is hired to eradicate pest problems but the reality is the pest population’s kept to where they are not visible or in critical areas. Pests have been with us since life began and in most cases they are tougher than we are. So Pest Control is same as for accidents you try to minimize the risks and behaviors that cause accidents. Unfortunately there is always something that can go wrong or someone careless a part that breaks etc.

You can minimize at risk behaviors by providing training and minimize exposures by issuing PPE But you must have ongoing Safety training and Audits humans tend to get careless unless constantly monitored in particular in this area.

By: Article Reader

Article Reader — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 13:00:33 +0000

Bill, I have a feeling that your company slogan has nothing to do with your very low injury rate. The low rate has to with people working safely on their own regardless of the slogan. After all, who wants to get hurt.

By: Randy

Randy — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 12:24:34 +0000

I would prefer to avoid this contensious issue by focusing not on incidents but rather at-risk behaviors. Particularly for companies with very low incident rates, whether a low probability incident occurs or not is often not a reflectionon the safety program. By creating a culture where everyone is taking precautions to avoid at-risk actions, even the events leading to extremely low probability (e.g. 1x/career) injuries can be prevented.

By: BILL HITT

BILL HITT — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 11:40:18 +0000

NOT HAVING “ZERO ACCIDENTS ” IS LIKE TRYING TO WIN A MILITARY VICTORY HALFWAY! YES,AT CPW WE DO HAVE “ZERO ACCIDENTS”AS A SLOGAN.THIS IS IMPORTANT TO OUR EMPLOYEES TO TRY TO REACH THAT GOAL. WE DO NOT ALWAYS GET THERE BUT OUR ACCIDENT RATE IS VERY LOW AND OUR COMPANY IS INVOLVED IN ALL UTILITIES INCUDING POWER,WATER,GAS,SEWER,A WATER PLANT AND A SEWER PLANT.

By: Willy

Willy — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 19:04:33 +0000

We have no safety slogan here. The biggest injuries here are the occasional paper cuts and minor solder burns. They are far and inbetween. They are reported for the most part and dealt with burn cream or band-aids from our first aid kits. We have PPE that the employees do wear when needed. Other than that they do their work the best they can without causing themselves or others injury. Also without nobody constantly getting on their case about safety.

I would hope there are no companies out there which do have safety slogans that hide injuries or put fear into employees so as to not have them report any. Wait, what am I posting? Of coarse there is.

By: Linda Lombardi

Linda Lombardi — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 15:30:50 +0000

I would like to read the comments submitted.