"Selling" Safety
You must "sell" management on the benefits of approving your recommendations. To most effectively do that, emphasize the bottom line - how they will benefit financially. Educate management on the direct and indirect accident cost savings realized if your recommendations are approved.
Direct and Indirect Cost Savings: Indirect costs can be over four times direct costs when an accident occurs. To help management understand the bottom-line financial benefits from approving recommendations, emphasize the financial benefits. The most common way of doing this is to estimate the direct and indirect cost savings.
- Direct costs include workers' compensation payments, medical expenses, and costs for legal services.
- Indirect costs include training replacement employees, accident investigation and implementation of corrective measures, lost productivity, repairs of damaged equipment and property, and costs associated with lower employee morale and absenteeism.
OSHA's Safety Pays software is an excellent tool that estimates direct and indirect accident costs. It also calculates the business volume required to cover those costs. The data is based on 52,000 lost-time claims submitted to a major workers compensation insurance carrier.
Provide Options
Another good recommendation strategy is to provide the decision-maker with alternative corrective actions. This will increase the probability that the decision-maker will choose one of the alternatives. Your options might follow the logic below:
- First option - If we had all the money we needed, what could we do? Eliminate the hazard with primarily engineering controls. Additional administrative controls if required.
- Second option - If we have limited funds, what would we do. Eliminate the hazard with primarily administrative controls. Engineering controls if required.
- Third option - If we don't have any money, what can we do? Reduce exposure to the hazard with administrative controls and/or PPE.
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
2-8. What should you emphasize to improve the chances of getting your recommendations for corrective actions and system improvements approved by management?
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