Do you agree?
If CEO is not safety oriented, it is a duty of a safety professional within the organization who should ensure that the regulations are educated to him or her without fail. A safety professional is the bridge between employees and the management who should balance the effectiveness of safety into reduced cost deliverables.
Quite honestly, depending on the size of the Company most CEO’s of the big ones are far more concerned about the bottom line, manufacturing costs, and give excellent lip service to safety. Yes, they will give speeches about “weaving safety into the fabric of their industry” nice quote however, that is just what it is “just words”! They have people that do that or have outsourced it to their insurance company and have totally cut their Corporate EH&S budgets & staff. Also following the “COVID weed out” that was done, very little replacing followed. It seems the Corporate attitude is now, “Do more with less”. We have seen fewer & fewer “in-house” safety seminars, safety training programs, etc. at many locations. Are we seeing major safety failures in large companies? Don’t know but how about Boeing, Kia, Honda, Kawasaki just to name a few.
HSE People - Safety starts in the Boardroom, if CEO is not Safety orientated, the organisation culture will be impacted
No, I think just an excuse! Unless DIRECTLY attempting to undermine you, then it’s your responsibility to change the culture and when you stop trying don’t be a “check collector/quitter!” Changed the culture multiple times under very challenging conditions being mainly construction but some manufacturing sites so again, the sign and message is for excuse makers who should choose another profession!
Most accidents or adverse outcomes are the result of bad decisions, indecisions, or decisions devoid of appropriate risk-based thinking, throughout the life cycle and adverse progression life cycle...? Even loss of situational awareness... Including intentional acts, in action, in decisions... Further, we humans make things: systems, processes, procedures, operations, tasks, products, steps, instructions, literature, on and on.... When we make these things we must identify, eliminate, or control the associated risks... When we make things and do not understand the risks system accidents and other adverse outcomes will happen... We need to design things to allow humans to be human... We need to climb out of the new boxes/mindsets and apply many forms of thinking. We will make mistakes, errors, fail, loss situational awareness, get confused, fixate, be stressed, become ill, so-called experts will be distracting and they will also fixate, on and on...
No. There are ways to bypass and/or reduce the influence of the CEO, especially in large corporations. Leaders can exist at any levels regardless of what or who is above them. I’ve never listened nor supported anyone that I’ve reported to if they were not onboard. I would usually upset them by letting them know that I may report to them but I work for the employees.
In my humble experience, it is relatively easy for the CEO to be safety-oriented. It is much more difficult for the middle management, who normally have very clear goals and are usually measured by their productivity. Pro-active safety-oriented goals are difficult to develop. They are usually much softer than the targets related to overall productivity. For a good safety culture you need to get everybody aboard.
I disagree. The CEO must be committed as shown by their behaviour not just what they say or write. This means that productivity must not trump safety at any time, day or night. #prevention #leadership #governance #Oversight
And “safety-oriented” means they value humans, they believe that a safe work environment comes before profit, and these beliefs are evident in their actions and systems. This is a BIG ask because conventional business success metrics facilitate the opposite. So, without explicitly mapping your values and beliefs (no, not the ones you think you have - the ones that show up in your actions) and examining the actions which your operating systems facilitate, you are not “safety-oriented” in my experience.
Brinkman Construction EH&S Manager
1moIt goes without saying yet always needs to be said!If you've been in the safety business long enough you will have experienced both sides of this equation. The CEO and executive team need to be fully onboard along with the entire management staff, if not you'll never build it. My favorite question has always been: How do you want to spend your money?? Yes, there is a cost in delivering a substantial safety program that works, and, builds culture. The larger and more taxing cost has been and always will be the short sided thought of " We can't afford to do that"- You'll pay ten fold, eperience loss of sleep leading to health issues and maybe if you're lucky even have free room and board at your local penitentiary... Too much??