Category: Special Topics in Safety Management

Safety is a process, and as such, needs to be managed. This section offers resources to create a viable safety program, sell it to senior management, train supervisors and employees in using it, and then track and report your progress. Look also for ways to advance your own skills in these areas, both for your current job, and those that follow.

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Employers Must Pay for PPE … Sometimes

On February 13, 2008, an OSHA rule took effect that requires employers to pay for personal protective equipment (PPE) for their employees. Sounds simple enough, right? Hah! As with any regulation covering such a broad and complex area, the “employer pays” PPE rule is rife with exceptions and clarifications. Our sister website, Safety.BLR.com, took a […]

Employee Discipline: Essential Considerations

Yesterday we explored the benefits and drawbacks of using carrots (rewards) or sticks (punishments) to motivate safe employee behavior. But sooner or later, discipline will be needed, so today we’ll look at the key elements of a disciplinary procedures policy. When an employee’s performance is below expectations or his or her conduct on the job […]

Safety Motivation: Carrot? Stick? Neither?

Today we look at the relative merits of rewards and punishments as motivators of safe workplace behavior, and at a third alternative that may trump both. We often hear about the significance of motivation in athletic endeavors, or weight loss, or even acting. But just what does that mean? Motivation is what induces a person […]

Going Green: Show Me the Money

Yesterday we explored the leading role that safety professionals can play in helping their workplaces “go green.” Today, we’ll give you the ammunition you need to approach upper management—the environmental, health, and, more important to some, economic benefits of going green. Much like the unfortunate term “bailout package,” perhaps “going green” isn’t the greatest name […]

Going Green—What Is Safety’s Role?

The ever-increasing attention given to environmental concerns coupled with high energy costs have made the subject of “green buildings” and “green workplaces” one of the hottest topics around. Here is how safety fits in. As a safety professional, you not only can take an active role in the workplace greening process, you also can—and undoubtedly […]

The Return to Standard Time Can Be Deadly

For most people in the United States, daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. this Sunday, November 2. And, according to several studies, the days following the return to standard time can be a particularly dangerous period for your employees, both at work and on their way home. Two professors at Carnegie Mellon University reported […]

Attacking Heart Attack Risk Factors

Yesterday we looked at the growing problem of obesity in America and at its serious consequences for your employees’ health and your organization’s bottom line. Today we’ll focus on the related issue of heart attacks, and how you can help your employees lower their risk. In order to reduce the risk of heart attack, you […]

Obesity Costlier to Business than Smoking, Alcoholism

Helping workers deal with weight problems will improve their health—and your profitability. Take a look around your workplace. Notice anything different? Do some of your employees seem a bit, um, bigger? Or, to put it politically incorrectly, fatter? A study released in April by The Conference Board states that more than one-third (34 percent) of […]

State-by-State List of Cell Phone Laws

Federal law does not prohibit drivers from using mobile phones while driving, but many states and local jurisdictions have imposed restrictions. Today we, look a resource that keeps you abreast of the latest changes. Yesterday we looked at the various dangers linked to cell phone use, including distracted driving (while talking, dialing, or texting), hearing […]

6 Tips for Safer Cell Phone Use

Today we look at the dangers of cell phone use—although several are still open to debate—and at some key elements of employee cell phone policies. For some time now, concerns over the safety hazards posed by cell phone use have not been limited to the potential for accidents caused by distracted driving. The OSHA Compliance […]