Workplace safety and accidents: An

industrial and organizational psychology

perspective
Program Objectives

Learn how to place safety next to production at the top of

the priority list.
Evaluate the impact of corporate/safety culture on safety
program effectiveness.
Identify the elements of an effective safety program.
Develop a list of ideas for improving your company’s safety
program.
Identify a strategy for selling change and getting more
support for the safety effort.
Safety as a Priority

• To make safety a top priority in your company,

• you must…

• Remove subjectivity—Use objective tools to quantify savings when

implementing a safety program.
• Make safety an enterprise value, not just a cost center.
• Compete successfully for limited budget dollars.
• Change employee health and safety from reactive to proactive.

Take safety out of the back room and

put it in the boardroom.
Safety as a Priority

• Safety Professional/Facilitator Skills:

•People-oriented skills
•Management and business skills
•Language skills
•Flexibility for change
•Improved technical skills
Safety as a Priority

•Past Business Model: •Present Business Model:

Hierarchy Flatters organization

Equates capital with power Equates knowledge with power
National boundaries restrict Global marketplace
business initiatives and relationships Focus tasks around team
Focus tasks around individual
Safety as a Priority—Injury Statistics

According to OSHA…

On the downside:
75% of OSHA citations classified as serious, repeat, or willful.
50 workers are injured every minute.
14 workers die each day.
4.2 million nonfatal injuries and illnesses reported in 2008.

• On the up side, with increased safety prevention programs:

Fatality statistics reduced by 50% since 1970.
Injury and illness rates reduced by 40% while employment doubled
(56/111 million), and the number of worksites has doubled (3.5/7
million).
Overall fatal work injury rate was lower in 2009 than the rate for any
year since the fatality census in 1992.
Safety as a Priority—OSHA General Duty Clause

Each employer:
• “Shall furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of
employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or
are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees;”
• “Shall comply with occupational safety and health standards promulgated
under this Act.”

• Each Employee:
• “Shall comply with occupational safety and health standards and all rules,
regulations, and orders issued pursuant to this Act which are applicable to
his own actions and conduct.”
Safety as a Priority—OSHA Multi-Employer Citation Policy

• On multi-employer worksites (in all

industry sectors):
• More than one employer may be cited for a
hazardous condition that violates an OSHA
standard. A two-step process must be
followed in determining whether more than
one employer is to be cited.
Safety as a Priority—Injury Statistics

• Time to Reflect…

What are your company’s injury stats?

How many people in your company know your injury
stats?
Do you have improvement goals?
How many know what your goals are?
Safety Culture

• Why prevent workplace accidents?

The Heinrich Accident Model of 1931

 Accidents are similar to a set of dominoes in which one action initiated a sequence of
actions. The falling dominoes represent the failure to prepare for and prevent accidents
and those that remain standing do so only because of default.
 Heinrich explained that the dominoes would eventually fall because they are a
consequence of one specific event. In this case, the consequence is not creating a safety
culture designed to prevent accidents.
DuPont Accident Theory
 Accidents are preventable when the responsibility for actions are assigned to a specific
individual or group and that entity is made accountable for his/her/their actions.
 Accident losses and costs can be reduced if someone is made accountable.
Safety Culture

• Traditional Approach:
Engineering
Education
Enforcement

Comprehensive Approach:
Awareness through education
Compliance through enforcement
Engineering Safety Enforcement Example:
Creating a safety culture Require employees to wear safety
goggles while doing all tasks on
Safety management the plant floor.
Behavior modification
Elements of a Safety Program

 Critique your current

precautions by grading
preventative measures from A
through F.
 Conduct a safety audit of all
preventative measures and
see how they measure up to
current OSHA safety
recommendations.
Elements of a Safety Program

• Simmons Method:

Calculate a representative number of incidents for:

Dispensary cases only
Medical Treatment
Lost Time
Determine the average for each incident type.
Use this average (for the case type) to determine uninsured costs.
Elements of a Safety Program

• Experience Mod Factor:

Comparison of actual losses to expected losses.

Benchmark Tool in which 1.00 is average.
Lower than 1.00 is better than average.
Higher than 1.00 is worse than average.
Measure dollars, not number of claims.
Based on a rolling three years.
Used as a multiplier for premium calculation.
Elements of a Safety Program

TYPE OF INSURANCE LIMIT

Compensation Benefits Statutory

Employer’s Liability $100,000

Bodily Injury By Accident – Each Accident $500,000
Bodily Injury By Disease – Policy Limit $100,000
Bodily Injury By Disease – Each Employee

CODE CLASSIFICATION PAYROLL RATE PREMIUM

2812 Cabinet Workers $3,100,000 4.98 $154,380

7380 Drivers $175.00 5.17 $9,048

8810 Clerical $800,000 0.25 $2,000

Estimated Manual Premium $165,428

Estimated Standard Premium (Based on 1.16 Exp Mod) $191,896

Estimated Premium Discount ($16,503)

Expense Constant $210

ESTIMATED ANNUAL PREMIUM $175,603

Elements of a Safety Program

Loss Sensitivity Analysis

MEDICAL &
MEDICAL ONLY CLAIMS
INDEMNITY CLAIMS

A B C D E

ACTUAL 3 YR. SAVINGS

3 YR. ACTUAL INCURRED
INCURRED PREMIUM Column B less
PREMIUM LOSS, LESS 70%
LOSS COST Column D

$500 $1,135 $500 x .70 = $150 $378 ($757)

$1,000 x .70 =
$1,000 $2,334 $693 ($1,641)
$300

$2,000 x .70 =
$2,000 $4,605 $1,389 ($3,216)
$600
Elements of a Safety Program

• Workers’ Compensation Pricing Programs:

 Guaranteed Cost
 Flat/Level Dividend
 Sliding Scale/Variable
Dividend
 Retrospective (Retro)
Plan
 Self-Insured
 Deductibles