[PEN-L:155] Safety at work - talking the language of business

[Bill Rosenberg <w.rosenberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

US PENers might be interested in the words of Jerry Scannell,
president of the US National Safety Council, former head of the US
Occupational Safety and Health Administration, speaking in Sydney to
a health and safety conference.

He was urging safety and health professionals "to start talking the
language of business finance and marketing in order to put safety at
the centre of the company's thinking."

    During his time at Johnson and Johnson the company employed
    15,000 sales people all around the world and these were the ones
    suffering fatalities (mainly through vehicle crashes), not the
    workers at the manufacturing plants.

    So, instead of talking about lost time injuries and lost working
    days, he talked about 33,000 lost sales calls that year. Calls
    which would have been made had the sales people not been injured
    at work. The chairman, recalls Scannell, reacted sharply and
    positively on hearing injury statistics reported in his own
    language.

    "We safety professionals don't talk management language. Look at
    sales, marketing and financial goals. You need to make sure that
    your company's safety plan gets integrated into the business
    plan."

Never mind the people, feel the profit - or am I being too cynical?

Bill

Bill Rosenberg, w.rosenberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx