WTH? Did Haywood just say that? Yep – I am afraid I did and I mean it. Now my personal actions do not reflect that belief, as I am a safety professional and I want every decision you make to be one based on YOUR SAFETY. But as a business, safety can never be #1! We need to strive to make safety EQUAL TO the other core business functions such as production. We need to make safety no more AND NO LESS than the efforts put on making the business successful. The business is not in business to generate “safety”, it is in business to generate some product or service. Our role as safety professionals is to help the business achieve these goals in a safe manner and at some point, the business will benefit from safety in both direct and indirect costs. As Dr. Trevor Keltz was so quick to remind us…
“There’s an old saying that if you think safety is expensive, try an accident. Accidents cost a lot of money.
And, not only in damage to plant and in claims for injury, but also in the loss of the company’s reputation.”
– Dr. Trevor Kletz
Saying “Safety is #1” makes it a priority and as we all know, priorities change based on our circumstances at that movement. What does not change so easily are our personal values! Sure we make a few changes in our daily routines based on last-minute meetings and family needs, but we do NOT change our value system to accommodate those new demands. In other words, we are flexible up to a point. As in life, our safety can be flexible up to that point where we say NO.
