Selling Safety

Managers will never say they don’t believe in safety–not out loud anyway. It’s like saying you’re against freedom and babies. (That’s why “The values of leadership” was the top argument in the Safety and Hygiene News survey featured in last month’s issue.) So, it’s not a matter of selling the overall concept of safety that’s tough, it’s convincing company leaders to spend more time and money on your companies safety program that’s the challenge. Many times, unless there’s a regulatory wolf at the gate, managers want tangible proof that they should give more to the safety cause.

Here are three tips to help you get more support (money and attention) from CEO’s and other senior decision makers:

1. Show them the monetary loss from compensation cases. This is often a fuzzy area in many manger’s minds. The money for compensation can be hidden in various budgets. By showing leaders the actual loss caries a stronger impact than just saying “safety saves us money.” Using the formula on the right a $4,000 compensation claim requires a company with a 5% profit margin to sell $208,000 worth of product. A nasty $100,000 claim results in a $4,200,000 make up!)

2. Give specific examples. Don’t just say “if we improve the lighting in the shop we’ll cut down our injuries.” How many accident investigations showed that poor lighting was considered a root cause of the accident? List them and show as much detail as possible.

3. Find out who else has done what you’re asking for and describe the positive results. Example: “Company X instituted a supervisory safety reward program in 2003 and within one year they reduced their accident rate by 45%.” That’ll get their attention.