“There are similar core principles in play at companies striving toward zero accidents and injuries, but there is no common template”
Meredith Armstrong Whiting, Senior Research Fellow

The American workplace has become increasingly safer, according to a report released today by The Conference Board.

The Conference Board’s new survey of leading U.S. companies reports a steadily declining rate of lost-time accidents and injuries and incidents reported to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

From 1999 to 2002, the number of lost-time cases per 100 full-time employees in surveyed firms declined by an average of more than 40%, and recorded incidents have declined an average of more than 23% -- trends that are generally consistent with OSHA statistics.

Companies striving for outstanding safety and health records are not only ensuring strict regulatory compliance, but are developing their own best practices to improve their performance (See a sample program. OSHA Sample Safety and Health Program for Small Business ). The primary drivers appear to be a belief that accidents and injuries are both unacceptable and costly, and that business strongly benefits from workplace safety programs – directly, through reduced costs, and indirectly, through improved morale and increased productivity.

Use of “best practices” is high – 84% of surveyed companies have adopted 23 best practice strategies listed in the survey. Certain themes stand out as essential:

• Clear management visibility and leadership

• Ownership of safety and health by all employees

• Accountability at all levels of an organization

• Open sharing of knowledge and information throughout the organization.

“There are similar core principles in play at companies striving toward zero accidents and injuries, but there is no common template,” says Meredith Armstrong Whiting, a Senior Research Fellow at The Conference Board and co-author of the report with Charles J. Bennett, a Senior Research Associate at The Conference Board. “Each company faces unique needs and opportunities inherent in the nature of its operations, workplaces, and corporate culture. But the move toward strengthening safety is now widespread.”

Everybody Gets Involved
The study shows that management practices alone are not sufficient to achieve outstanding safety performance: All of a company’s workers must be engaged and involved. Ultimately, achieving excellence is about empowering management, supervisors, employees, and contractors to make safety and health practices truly work.

Within companies known for safety and health excellence, safety and health is a shared value. If this value, both to the business and to all employees, is not shared, any improvements in safety will very likely not be sustainable.

Rating the Best Practices
“Operational integration,” defined in the survey as the integration of safety into all facility operations and processes – and the most highly rated practice in the survey – has been adopted by 90% of the survey participants. The practice was given an effectiveness rating of 8 or better by more than 75% of its users, and almost 30% gave it a rating of 9 or 10, putting it in the “extremely effective” category.

Ratings for some of the more traditional programs, such as safety committees and training, were less positive. This may be because respondents are very familiar with these safety and health management tools, since companies have employed them for decades. It may also suggest that survey participants view these programs more as necessary obligations than best practices.

Strategies to increase employee involvement beyond the established use of safety committees may prove the most fertile ground for further improvement of safety and health performance, especially in light of the current emphasis on employee ownership as a vital component of any safety and health program.

The core elements of successful safety and health strategies, according to The Conference Board survey participants, are:

• Leadership at the top

• Confidence on the part of all employees

• Creating and implementing a safety and health management system that works for the individual company

• Monitoring performance regularly

Source: Driving Toward “0”: Best Practices in Corporate Safety and Health, Report R-1334-03-RR, The Conference Board