Scary Survey Numbers Impact Safety

Do you think that just because your people are still employed in a down economy, that they’re adhering to safety procedures? Don’t bet your life on it. In fact, in desperate times, employees are resorting to desperate measures and are doing desperate things to hang onto their jobs.

According to a recent survey by Adecco, one of the world’s leaders in human resource solutions, an incredible 28 percent of respondents would do something dishonest in order to keep their jobs. These behaviors include blaming coworkers for mistakes, setting up situations for co-workers to fail or even blackmailing colleagues. Gen Y’s numbers are even scarier with 41 percent saying they would do something dishonest.

In the same survey 20 percent of currently employed individuals say current economic conditions have a negative affect upon their mental health.

Finally, 82 percent of respondents said their employers are not paying more attention to performance even as layoffs reduce payrolls to essential employees.

SAFETY ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: If you think that simply maintaining your current OH&S program is going to get you to Zero as the world changes – think again. As these times in our economy take their toll on your people, they are willing to sabotage other workers to save their own jobs. IS your OH&S program ready to address this? Seriously?

Twenty percent of your people are feeling that you’re not paying enough attention to their mental health on the job. What are you doing to address this? Someone with mental health problems on the job can be a walking hazard.

The world is changing. The worker on the job is changing. The numbers of Gen Y’s on the job are changing how you handle your safety program. But are you trying to manage the potential fallout using last year’s OH&S model in this year’s economic reality?

Look, if you’re not addressing Safety Attitude on the job, you’re missing a potentially fatal hazard. Workers who are prepared to blame co-workers to simply keep their own jobs are loose-cannons on the job site. You don’t have enough supervisors to watch everyone all of the time. You need to do something different.

Don’t wait until it’s too late. The numbers speak for themselves. You do the math. If you don’t address these new realities now, your safety numbers are going to take a nosedive and your LTI’s are going to cost you a lot of money.