Why safety should be a priority?

Safety has a direct correlation to a company’s revenue, –

Not only is a safety priority great for your employees, it’s also great for business. Your company can reap the benefits of safety by saving on the costs of things like lawsuits and damage to equipment. Worker’s compensation and settlements can really add up over time and workplace deaths even more so.

Plus, with more safety measures and training in place, the more likely your employees are to work efficiently and productively, which is also better for your revenue. There are many reasons to make safety a priority in your facility, most importantly being the health and well-being of your employees.

It’s better for everyone in your company and it’s great for your business, too. Organizations that prioritize safety stand apart from the rest. WireCrafters is dedicated to making sure your business is as safe as possible. All of our equipment solutions are designed with OSHA regulations in mind.

1. We provide our customers with creative solutions for their safety, security, and storage needs.
2. We offer materials like wire mesh panels and pallet rack enclosures for safe storage and guardrails and handrails for your space and your machinery, all in an effort to protect your employees and inventory.

Learn more about our commitment to safety here!

Why is safety not a priority?

Safety Is A Value, Not a Priority Would it surprise you if I told you that safety shouldn’t be a priority for you? That seems like a shocking statement. In some ways, it is. It is true, though. Safety should not be a priority. It must be a value. We think of the word, “priority” and we associate it with things that are important to us.

• In fact, the definition of priority is “a thing that is regarded as more important than another.”A value is more of a core belief that guides our priorities.
• It is unusual for values to change.
• Yet your priorities can shift daily.
• For example, it may be a priority for you to make sure that your children always get a healthy, home-cooked dinner.

On Tuesday, though, they have dentist’s appointments and you run out of time. So, you buy pizza on the way home. On Tuesday, their dental health became your priority and a homecooked meal shifted to a position of lesser importance. At work each day, as a multitude of operational, supply, or people issues arise, your priorities will shift and change.

What started out as the most important item to address in the morning may not be the most important item on your desk by 11 AM. Perhaps when you arrived at work, it seemed critical that you finish the schedule for next week before lunch, but then you got a knock at your door. An employee needed your help with a product line that had suddenly gone off-spec and was down, putting production at a standstill.

Your priorities changed. Thus, employee safety cannot be a priority. It can never get shifted lower in the pile of concerns to be addressed after something else more pressing. There is nothing else more pressing. That is because safety must be a value that does not change.

• Values are embedded in our personal belief system.
• Values are embedded in our company culture.
• Company values are the internal beliefs, ethics, and guiding morals upon which a business bases its objectives and business practices.
• Companies must consciously place the safety of workers into their values system.

By establishing safety as a core value, your company will be on its way to establishing a safety culture that you need to avoid workplace incidents, boost worker morale, retain experienced workers, and maintain affordable insurance premiums. to lay the building blocks of a healthy safety culture where safety is a value.

What does it mean to make safety a priority?

Value vs. Priority – To understand why, you have to understand the difference between a value and a priority. is defined as an established right to a certain higher degree of importance or precedence. In other words, something is more important than something else.

, on the other hand, is a fundamental belief that guides your attitudes, choices, and actions in all respects. If you think of safety as a priority, you think of it as more important than other factors, but that’s mostly a statement of relativity. If you think of safety as a core value, you think of it as a guiding principle behind everything you do.

Safety as a priority treats safety as another item on the to-do list, albeit an important item. Safety as a core value treats safety as the most important item. More than that, safety is the commonality behind every choice and action. Think of it this way, our priorities change depending on the situation but our core values usually don’t.

Should safety always be first?

IMPORTANCE – Safety is one of the most important aspects when entering construction areas because they may contain potential hazards such as sharp edges on equipment or substances that could harm someone. It’s necessary to remember Safety1st because it can ultimately save lives! For example, it also applies in the workplace, where safety must always come before production.

Why is it important to prioritize safety in the workplace?

Companies of all sizes and industries have workplace dangers that threaten the health and safety of employees. Employees are a company’s most valuable asset. Developing a culture centered around safety not only protects the well-being of each individual, but also results in savings and benefits for the organization. What are some key benefits of a safe workplace?

1. Improves employee satisfaction. When employees work in a safe environment they can focus better on their job with lower stress. Understanding safety best practices also improves employee confidence levels when performing job related duties.
2. Increased productivity. Minimizing workplace injuries improves productivity. If an injury occurs productivity is halted to address the situation. Productivity can be impacted long-term if the employee needs time off to recover, and additional staff need to be hired and trained to cover their duties.
3. Saves money. If a company has a high safety rating it can result in lower premiums for corporate insurance. A comprehensive safety training program also protects the company from a compliance standpoint.
4. Improves quality. Companies that prioritize safety are often more efficient and have less employee down time, which results in higher quality products and services.
5. Improves retention. When employers value the safety of their employees and provide a safe work environment and proper training, their employees are less likely to leave.

What elements are important to improve the success of your safety training program?

1. Interactive. Offering training in a variety of styles and formats helps with engagement. Some content presents well in video, while other more specialized content may be better suited for group or even one-on-one training, providing the opportunity for questions and feedback.
2. Flexible. With more and more employees having flexible schedules, having flexible training options helps to ensure the success of the program. Many safety training programs are available online, such as BLR’s Training Today. These online options offer videos that break down topics into short segments that employees can complete in 20-30 minutes, from any device with a web browser. Each video includes a short test to confirm the employee was trained and understands the content.
3. Relevant. Different training topics may be relevant for different groups of employees. It helps to segment your team so you can define a safety program that really resonates with each person and feels useful.
4. Ongoing. Most people learn and retain information best when it is broken down and presented in smaller pieces. Mapping out a plan for the year and holding monthly or regularly scheduled safety trainings that are focused and centered around specific topics will help ensure success. Having an ongoing safety initiative will also help to promote a culture of safety, which is the ultimate goal.

What are some key things to address to improve workplace safety?

• Safety team. Have a team or individual responsible for making sure the safety program is being implemented and documented properly
• OSHA Requirements. Make sure you are current on all OSHA standards. OSHA is a federal law, but some states have their own OSHA laws. These state laws take precedence over the federal law.
• Clear warnings. Post warnings where appropriate noting safety best practices
• Proper equipment. Make sure all equipment and devices are installed and checked regularly to ensure they are in proper working order
• First aid. Make sure first aid kits are stocked and easily accessible
• Emergency plan. Have an emergency evacuation plan in place that includes an offsite meeting location

Watertech is proud to have a culture centered around safety. Watertech has taken considerable time to develop a safety program that delivers information to employees on a monthly basis and is relevant to each person’s role. Having a team that has been trained in proper safety procedures and practices ensures not only their own safety, but also the safety of our customers.

Can a safety be 1 point?

Scored by the offense – In American football, if a team attempting an extra point or two-point conversion (officially known in the rulebooks as a try) scores what would normally be a safety, that attempting team is awarded one point. This is commonly known as a conversion safety or one-point safety,

The first known occurrence of the conversion safety was in an NCAA University Division (now NCAA FBS ) game on October 2, 1971, scored by Syracuse in a game at Indiana, On a failed point-after-touchdown kick, an Indiana player illegally batted the ball in the end zone (a spot foul defensive penalty).

There are two other known occurrences of the conversion safety in Division I college football – a November 26, 2004, game in which Texas scored against Texas A&M, and the 2013 Fiesta Bowl in which Oregon scored against Kansas State, In both games, the point-after-touchdown kick was blocked and recovered by the defense, which then fumbled or threw the ball back into its own end zone.

A conversion safety has occurred once in Division I-AA (now NCAA FCS ) where Nevada scored a conversion safety against North Texas on September 21, 1991 and twice in Division II : once by Morningside College on November 9, 1996, against Northern Colorado, and once by Emory and Henry College on October 8, 2022, against University of Virginia’s College at Wise,

There are also at least four known NCAA Division III occurrences, the first being on October 20, 1990, scored by DePauw University against Anderson University ; the second on October 23, 1993, scored by Salisbury State against Wesley College ; the third on November 11, 2000, scored by Hamline University against St.

1. Thomas-Minnesota, and the most recent scored by Bluffton University against Franklin College (Indiana) on November 9, 2013.
2. One-point safeties have also occurred in a NAIA game and two junior college games.
3. No conversion safeties have been scored in the NFL since 1940, although it is now slightly more likely after the rule change in 2015 which allowed the defense to take possession and score on a conversion attempt.

Before 2015, the only scenario in which a one-point safety could have been scored in the NFL would have involved, on a conversion attempt in which the ball was not kicked by the offense, the defense then kicking or batting a loose ball out of its own end zone without taking possession of the ball, giving the offense a one-point safety.

Is safety the number one priority?

The answer may be in how you measure it – Most companies say that safety is their number one priority. Ask almost any organization and you’ll find that not all employees agree. Management says the words “safety is number one” but the frontline population hears loud and clear that production, on-time performance, or customer service is number one. Unintentional as they may be, there are many management behaviors that “speak loudly” about where safety is on the priority list. Classic examples can be seen in almost any company: repeatedly spending only a minute or two on safety and fifteen minutes on production in start-up meetings, measuring and providing feedback around quality or customer service each and every day while doing the same for safety only monthly, praising and celebrating good on-time performance even when safety short cuts were used.

• In safety, it isn’t just what is done; it is often the lack of action that creates a silence that naturally gets filled by other priorities.
• No mention of safety during a production push, no reinforcement for safe behavior, no action on a hazard that was reported.
• What leaders do and do not do tells employees what the priorities are.

What leaders say is often ignored if not backed up by action. So why do supervisors and managers who truly care about safety behave in ways that contradict their values? Remarkably, how we measure safety is a primary root cause. Incident rate, lost time rate, severity rate and other lagging indicators are poor measures of safety.

Such measures tell us how many people got hurt and how badly, but they do not tell us how well a company is doing at preventing incidents. One of the reasons they are a poor gauge of prevention is that these numbers have what statisticians call natural variation. In other words, it is a statistical fact that if the yearly number of unsafe conditions and unsafe behaviors were held constant, an organization would experience a different number of incidents during the first half of a year and the last half (or from one year to the next).

Thus, incident rates can get better or get worse with absolutely no change in safety conditions or behaviors. The result is that organizations, and departments within organizations, can go for long periods of time without incidents, despite having a less-than-safe work environment.

This statistical fact works against keeping safety a priority. Managers and supervisors can do nothing around safety for a period of time and be reinforced with a good incident rate. Such is not the case for other business objectives like productivity, on-time performance, quality, etc. Those objectives tend to have much more sensitive measures and thus more immediate and certain consequences for management behavior.

In the context of these other important business objectives (and their powerful consequences), it is easy for the well-intended manager or supervisor to put safety on the back burner. When the incident rate is low, one can assume all is well with safety and focus precious time on other priorities.

1. While there are many steps to build an effective safety culture, one where safety is truly a priority, a first step is to change the way safety is measured.
2. While incident rate is a necessary metric, it should be one of several.
3. The majority of measures should focus on proactive behaviors on the part of all employees—measures that track what people are doing daily to prevent incidents.

When there are measures of what leaders do on a daily and weekly basis to prevent incidents, immediate and certain consequences can be engineered in to ensure those activities occur. Daily and weekly accountabilities will raise safety to an equal playing field with other business objectives and help make safety a priority for all. To read more on the topic of ensuring safety is a priority, read Safe by Accident? Take the Luck out of Safety – Leadership Practices that Build a Sustainable Safety Culture.1 There is debate among some safety professionals about whether safety should be considered a priority or a value.

1. The argument against calling it a priority is that priorities change, whereas values do not.
2. Our position is that it matters little what you call it.
3. What matters is what executives, managers, supervisors and hourly employees do to create and sustain a safe work environment.
4. Simply changing safety from a priority to a value won’t change anyone’s behavior.

Focus on behavior, not names.

What 3 safety controls must meet the following order of priority?

How to accomplish it –

Eliminate or control all serious hazards (hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm) immediately. Use interim controls while you develop and implement longer-term solutions. Select controls according to a hierarchy that emphasizes engineering solutions (including elimination or substitution) first, followed by safe work practices, administrative controls, and finally personal protective equipment. Avoid selecting controls that may directly or indirectly introduce new hazards. Examples include exhausting contaminated air into occupied work spaces or using hearing protection that makes it difficult to hear backup alarms. Review and discuss control options with workers to ensure that controls are feasible and effective. Use a combination of control options when no single method fully protects workers.

Note: Whenever possible, select equipment, machinery, and materials that are inherently safer based on the application of “Prevention through Design” (PtD) principles. Apply PtD when making your own facility, equipment, or product design decisions. For more information, see the link to the NIOSH PtD initiative in Additional Resources,

What is a priority in the workplace?

Frequently asked questions. – How do you manage your priorities? Managing priorities is all about clarity. Make to clearly align your goals to company objectives – these will help you keep things on track. Next, learn to standardize and score your work requests so you have formula for prioritization.

Finally, get your team on board and get full oversight of the tasks within your project. What is the importance of work priorities? It’s important to set work priorities both in terms of individual tasks and overarching goals. They can help you work more efficiently, build teamwork and create a good work-life balance.

Setting work priorities also helps you understand the bigger picture and stay calm under pressure. What is an example of a work priority? A work priority might include the successful completion of a project, or getting a better handle on your day-to-day objectives.

Priorities management can help you manage both short and long-term tasks. Your manager should be able to help with these priorities. Priorities management is an ongoing effort. Like eating and organizing, priorities management is not one of those things you can do “once and for all.” It’s an ongoing effort that requires constant vigilance.

But you’ll find that practicing alignment in both directions, standardizing and scoring work requests, making time for important but not urgent work, and offering course corrections and positive feedback along the way is more than worth the effort. After all, a boat full of people all rowing in the same direction will get much farther, much faster than if everyone is focused on different destinations.

Is safety the number one priority?

The answer may be in how you measure it – Most companies say that safety is their number one priority. Ask almost any organization and you’ll find that not all employees agree. Management says the words “safety is number one” but the frontline population hears loud and clear that production, on-time performance, or customer service is number one. Unintentional as they may be, there are many management behaviors that “speak loudly” about where safety is on the priority list. Classic examples can be seen in almost any company: repeatedly spending only a minute or two on safety and fifteen minutes on production in start-up meetings, measuring and providing feedback around quality or customer service each and every day while doing the same for safety only monthly, praising and celebrating good on-time performance even when safety short cuts were used.

In safety, it isn’t just what is done; it is often the lack of action that creates a silence that naturally gets filled by other priorities. No mention of safety during a production push, no reinforcement for safe behavior, no action on a hazard that was reported. What leaders do and do not do tells employees what the priorities are.

What leaders say is often ignored if not backed up by action. So why do supervisors and managers who truly care about safety behave in ways that contradict their values? Remarkably, how we measure safety is a primary root cause. Incident rate, lost time rate, severity rate and other lagging indicators are poor measures of safety.

Such measures tell us how many people got hurt and how badly, but they do not tell us how well a company is doing at preventing incidents. One of the reasons they are a poor gauge of prevention is that these numbers have what statisticians call natural variation. In other words, it is a statistical fact that if the yearly number of unsafe conditions and unsafe behaviors were held constant, an organization would experience a different number of incidents during the first half of a year and the last half (or from one year to the next).

Thus, incident rates can get better or get worse with absolutely no change in safety conditions or behaviors. The result is that organizations, and departments within organizations, can go for long periods of time without incidents, despite having a less-than-safe work environment.

1. This statistical fact works against keeping safety a priority.
2. Managers and supervisors can do nothing around safety for a period of time and be reinforced with a good incident rate.
3. Such is not the case for other business objectives like productivity, on-time performance, quality, etc.
4. Those objectives tend to have much more sensitive measures and thus more immediate and certain consequences for management behavior.

In the context of these other important business objectives (and their powerful consequences), it is easy for the well-intended manager or supervisor to put safety on the back burner. When the incident rate is low, one can assume all is well with safety and focus precious time on other priorities.

While there are many steps to build an effective safety culture, one where safety is truly a priority, a first step is to change the way safety is measured. While incident rate is a necessary metric, it should be one of several. The majority of measures should focus on proactive behaviors on the part of all employees—measures that track what people are doing daily to prevent incidents.

When there are measures of what leaders do on a daily and weekly basis to prevent incidents, immediate and certain consequences can be engineered in to ensure those activities occur. Daily and weekly accountabilities will raise safety to an equal playing field with other business objectives and help make safety a priority for all. To read more on the topic of ensuring safety is a priority, read Safe by Accident? Take the Luck out of Safety – Leadership Practices that Build a Sustainable Safety Culture.1 There is debate among some safety professionals about whether safety should be considered a priority or a value.

The argument against calling it a priority is that priorities change, whereas values do not. Our position is that it matters little what you call it. What matters is what executives, managers, supervisors and hourly employees do to create and sustain a safe work environment. Simply changing safety from a priority to a value won’t change anyone’s behavior.

Focus on behavior, not names.

Why is it important to have a safe person?

The Squares. –

They listen to me without interrupting.

Safe people care about what you have to say and value your words. Pay attention to how people listen to you and how you feel if they interrupt or ignore you.

They validate my feelings and accept me.

Safe people support you on your good days and your bad days.

They treat me as an equal.

Safe people appreciate your strengths and skills. Though you may look to them for advice or guidance, safe people will not talk down to you or act condescendingly toward you. This means, they won’t act as though they are better or smarter than you.

They are patient with me.

Safe people will give you space and time. They will understand if you need to process your feelings and thoughts. Notice if people make you feel rushed or if they seem judgemental.

They don’t tell me how I should think or feel.

Safe people understand that you have your own feelings and thoughts. You may process things differently than they do and they are okay with that.

They respect my boundaries and wishes.

Safe people will listen to you and follow boundaries you put in place. Boundaries are able to be used in all types of relationships. Using boundaries doesn’t mean you have a bad relationship with someone. Boundaries are a tool so your relationships can operate as you and the other person are comfortable.

They admit when they are wrong.

Safe people are comfortable recognizing and acknowledging their mistakes. They take ownership and responsibility for their words and actions.

They notice how I’m feeling.

Safe people care about your feelings. They are more likely to notice how you are feeling because they pay attention to your body language and tone of voice.

They communicate well with me.

A safe person will make efforts to communicate with you in ways you understand. If you give them suggestions for how you like to communicate, they will do what they can to adjust communication between you two.

They make me feel like I can trust them.

Safe people do what they say they will do. They are consistent and reliable.

They let me control my life and make my own choices.

Safe people don’t try to make your decisions for you. Though you might ask them for advice, safe people respect your choices and that the decision is ultimately yours.

They tell me the truth and don’t lie to me.

A safe person won’t lie to you. They won’t keep harmful secrets from you or avoid telling you the whole truth.

They apologize AND try to make things better.

Safe people will apologize and make an effort to change behavior. While it’s one thing for someone to say, “I’m sorry” and acknowledge responsibility, safe people take it one step further by working to make positive change.

They enjoy spending time with me.

Safe people like your company and enjoy being around you. Though you may not share the same favorite activities, safe people try to do a mix of what you and they enjoy.

They make an effort to make me feel happy.

Safe people enjoy seeing you happy and want to share in your joy.

They bring out the best in me when we’re together.

You can tell a lot about a safe person by how you feel when they’re around. How comfortable do you feel? How safe do you feel? How happy do you feel? Do you feel like yourself when they are around? The Safe Qualities Square is a tool you can use to start noticing how people treat you and how you want to be treated.

Jack Gloop