当前位置：文档库 › Highlights of an industry benchmarking study-Health and safety excellence initiatives

Highlights of an industry benchmarking study-Health and safety excellence initiatives

FEATURE

Highlights of an industry benchmarking study:

Health and safety

excellence initiatives

This paper summarizes the?ndings of a benchmarking study of eight large companies that have achieved signi?cant reductions in injury/illness rates.Most companies followed a similar path,setting aggressive multi-year improvement goals for health and safety performance and holding business managers accoun-table for achieving progress.Most companies provided targeted assistance to sites struggling to meet improvement goals,and most companies included speci?c activities for improving ergonomics.

By Michael Lawrence Wynn

In the1990s,a‘‘zero injury’’culture was a popular vision proclaimed by many companies,but most struggled with putting the vision into action. Since that time,several companies have established aggressive multi-year plans to drive their injury and illness experience down by90%worldwide (10?improvement),and have achieved astounding results.A bench-marking study was conducted in May 2007to learn how these companies are achieving excellence in health and safety.

The benchmarking was conducted via phone interviews with corporate Health and Safety Managers or Direc-tors of eight companies that have embarked on aggressive enterprise-wide health and safety improvement initiatives.A questionnaire was used to guide the discussion,with many open-ended questions to allow each company to highlight its distinctive approach.

Eight companies participated in the benchmarking study.Seven were glo-bal enterprises,with one operating as a U.S.-based company,majority owned

by a global enterprise.Due to the small

sample size in this study,any data

comparisons should be considered

anecdotal in nature(not based on sta-

tistical analysis)(Figures1and2).

Five of the participating companies

shared their injury/illness improve-

ment data.The average reduction in

recordable incidence rate(IR)was

77%,and the average reduction in Lost

Workday Case Rate(LWCR)was81%,

achieved within3–12years(varies by

company).

The highlights from this benchmark-

ing exercise are organized into two

categories:general trends(actions

reported by the majority of companies)

and unique activities(notable actions

taken by one or two companies).

GENERAL TRENDS

Most companies followed a similar

path,described below in eight steps.

1.Formally declare an enterprise-

wide safety improvement initiative,

with executive sponsorship outside

of the health and safety manage-

ment line.

While each company had a

unique description of its vision for

health and safety excellence(for

example,‘‘reduce and eliminate

lost-time incidences’’or‘‘achieve

world-class safety performance’’),

nearly all identi?ed an executive

sponsor from corporate leadership.

Five of the companies identi?ed a

sponsor with titles such as CEO,

COO,or Group President,with

two companies identifying their

sponsors as a group representing

upper corporate management.

2.Establish key health and safety per-

formance metrics and routinely

report progress on these metrics at

the site,business,and enterprise

levels.

Most of the companies reported

that their initial primary metrics

were recordable incidence rate

and lost workday case rate.Signi?-

cant effort was required at the start

to ensure that all sites and busi-

nesses were reporting their injury/

illness experience consistent with

corporate standards,regardless of

the country in which they operated

(and what is required for local

injury/illness reporting).

3.Set aggressive multi-year improve-

ment goals for the enterprise and

cascade improvement goals down

to the business and site levels.

Most of the companies set

annual enterprise-wide injury/ill-

ness improvement goals and cas-

cade these down to the businesses

(divisions,business units,etc.)in

the form of percentage improve-

ment needed.Half the companies

assign the percentage improvement

goals to each individual site.

Mike Wynn,CPE is Vice President of

Humantech,a full-service human

performance consulting?rm specializ-

ing in workplace ergonomics since1979

(Tel.:7346633330;fax:7346637747;

e-mail:mwynn@https://www.wendangku.net/doc/a615260507.html,).

4.Hold line management (facility managers and above)accountable for progress toward the improve-ment goals,tying progress to com-pensation.

All participating companies reported that plant/facility/operat-ing unit managers are accountable for health and safety performance.Four companies reported that cor-porate executives are accountable for health and safety performance.Most companies reported that health and safety activities are widely embedded into annual per-sonal reviews,affecting salary increases.Half the companies reported that health and safety per-formance is tied to variable com-pensation for executives.

5.Reinforce the improvement initia-tive through a combination of rou-tine reporting of key metrics and site health and safety activity audits.

Most companies reported that they monitor health and safety per-formance by auditing the health and safety activities at local sites.Most companies identi?ed routine reporting of primary metrics up the line management chain.Sche-dules range from weekly reviews at the local level to annual reviews at the business level.

6.Provide targeted assistance to sites struggling to meet improvement goals.

Half the companies reported that speci?c programs were estab-lished to assist sites in improving health and safety performance.Pro-grams included the following:

Targeted training deployed to the worst performing sites

Matching funds provided to sites for improving targeted issues such as ergonomics and machine safeguarding

Corporate-funded consultation support for improving ergo-nomics

In addition,three companies reported that corporate health and safety plays a role in assisting sites that are struggling with health and safety performance.This included training,coaching,and developing action plans.

7.Include speci?c activities for ergo-nomics in the health and safety improvement initiative and estab-lish goals speci?cally for ergo-nomics.

Most companies identi?ed ergo-nomics as a point of emphasis between three and six years after launching their health and safety improvement initiative.They estab-lished speci?c goals for

ergonomic

Figure 1.Participating

companies.

Figure 2.Injury/illness improvement data from ?ve participating companies (incidence rate is calculated as number of recordable injuries and illnesses ?200,000/the number of hours worked;lost workday case rate is calculated as the number of incidents resulting in lost work time ?200,000/the number of hours worked).

All participating companies reported that plant/facility/operating unit managers are accountable for health and safety performance.

Most companies reported that they monitor health and safety performance by auditing the health and safety activities

at local sites.

Journal of Chemical Health &Safety,May/June 200823

improvement,ranging from activ-ities(training,assessments,etc.), to ergonomic risk exposure,to out-comes(Work-Related Musculoske-letal Disorder rate,workers’compensation costs associated with ergonomic injuries,etc.).

Activities to drive improvements in ergonomics performance varied considerably.These are highlighted in the next section(UNIQUE ACTIVITIES).

8.Introduce leading indicators(activ-

ities,safety audit scores)as primary metrics after initial progress is made toward lowering lagging metrics (injury rates).

Approaches to leading indicators varied considerably.Many compa-nies embrace activity metrics related to speci?c focus areas such as hand safety,ergonomics,or machine safe-guarding.Many companies elevate the importance of safety audit results as a leading indicator.This required

a comprehensive approach to setting

expectations for health and safety excellence,training audit teams, and deploying consistent assess-ments of business health and safety performance.

UNIQUE ACTIVITIES

A number of notable practices were shared during the benchmarking exer-cise.Three that stood out as unique and potentially useful to other compa-nies are described below.

1.Provide funding from corporate for

speci?c activities.

While corporate funding for safety improvements is not unique, several companies have established distinctive approaches to ensuring

that corporate funds are applied

optimally.One approach was to

create a matching funds program

for ergonomic assessments,where

sites apply annually for ergonomics

consulting assistance.Sites are

required to complete some initial

investigative work to scope the

issue,and a written commitment

from site leadership to follow

through on feasible improvements

is required to access the matching

funds.

2.Require managers to spend time

every day working on safety pro-

jects on the shop?oor.

One company sets aside one

hour every working day for man-

agers and supervisors to participate

in safety improvement projects on

the shop?oor.This‘‘safety hour’’

occurs at the same time enterprise-

wide,and managers wear colored

jackets during this time to maximize

the visibility of the company’s com-

mitment to safety.The practice of

investing signi?cant blocks of time

to focus on safety has enabled the

company to complete detailed

hazard assessments of all jobs,and

follow through on workplace safety

improvements on an on-going basis.

3.Establish goals for ergonomic risk

reduction.

Two companies have established

goals for ergonomic risk reduction

and have made signi?cant improve-

ments in this metric.Two others are

in the beginning stages of complet-

ing ergonomic risk assessments for

the purpose of establishing ergo-

nomic risk reduction goals.

One company has set the goal of

all sites having zero job/tasks at

high ergonomic risk within three

years of completing ergonomics

training.The company has standar-

dized on ergonomics tools and

training for manufacturing and

of?ce environments worldwide.

Another company has imple-

mented a three-phase approach to

ergonomic risk reduction:

(1)Each location was required to

identify the10highest ergo-

nomic risk tasks and control

50%of them within three years.

(2)Each location was required to

drive50%of jobs with identi-

?ed ergonomic risk to low risk.

(3)Each business must establish

goals for ergonomic risk reduc-

tion and make progress to the

goals.

FINAL THOUGHTS—CRITICAL

SUCCESS FACTORS FOR HEALTH

AND SAFETY

One question that corporate Health

and Safety Managers or Directors

answered was‘‘What do you believe

have been the critical success factors

for your health and safety improve-

ment initiative?’’Some of the more

intriguing answers were as follows:

Line management accountability

Common metrics,targets,and time-

frames

Integrate health and safety as well as

ergonomics into business processes

Operationalizing EHS;spread

responsibilities outside the EHS

function and drive employee invol-

vement in EHS

Common tools and training allow us

to formalize ergonomic improve-

ment activities

Must adapt what’s working in other

areas,such as quality and lean,into

the EHS management system

24Journal of Chemical Health&Safety,May/June2008