By Don Moen, HR & Safety Director
Every year, more than 1,000 construction workers are killed on the job (average of 3 deaths per day), and more than two million suffer a serious job-related injury or illness. Even one serious workplace injury or illness can have a devastating impact on a small business, including costs associated with higher workers’ compensation premiums, medical expenses, legal fees, replacement worker training, lost productivity, equipment repairs, and lower worker morale – to say nothing of the overwhelming personal impacts. Utilizing ABC of WI Safety helps businesses:
Small employers place a high value on the well-being of their employees. Many small businesses may employ family members and personal acquaintances. And, if you don’t know your workers before they are hired, the size of your workplace will promote the closeness and concern for one another, “that small business value”.
ABC of WI Safety provides helpful resources and is in existence to work with members to promote a safe and healthful workplace. Employers that make job safety and health a real part of their everyday operations will benefit in the long run. Investing in safety and health now will help you avoid possible losses in the future. A safe business is a sound business.
The main goal of ABC of WI Safety program is to prevent workplace injuries, illnesses, and deaths, as well as the suffering and financial hardship these events can cause for workers, their families, and employers. Traditional approaches are often reactive; that is, problems are addressed only after a worker is injured or becomes sick, a new standard or regulation is published, or an outside inspection finds a problem.
ABC of WI Safety encourages every workplace to have a safety and health program (system). Through these systems ABC of WI Safety will provide resources to help member companies develop safety and health programs and to recognize the successes of these programs through STEP’s Safety Management System.
ABC of WI Safety uses a proactive approach to managing workplace safety and health, recognizing that finding and fixing hazards before they cause injury or illness is a far more effective approach. The Recommended Practices present a step-by-step approach to implementing a successful safety and health program, built around seven core elements:
ABC of WI Safety can begin with a basic program, set simple goals, and grow from there. If you focus on achieving goals, monitoring performance, and evaluating outcomes, your workplace can progress to higher levels of safety and health achievement.
Every workplace should have a safety and health program that includes management leadership, worker participation, and a systematic approach to finding and fixing hazards. Regular workplace inspections are an important tool for identifying hazards and fixing them.
ABC of WI offers no cost to low cost and confidential safety and health services to member companies. Five highly trained construction safety and health professionals from ABC of WI Safety work with employers to identify safety and health hazards in workplaces and how to fix them. ABC of WI Safety also advises members on how to comply with OSHA standards, train and educate workers, and assist with establishing and improving safety and health programs along with defending members against OSHA citations. To take advantage of this resource, members just call ABC of WI and ABC of WI Safety will determine the scope of the visit. The visit may focus on a single concern of the member, or it may involve a thorough hazard assessment of the entire company and its operations.
As construction industry professionals, we all have a moral obligation to protect ourselves and each other, to ensure that anyone who sets foot on our jobsites does so in the safest manner possible. Through this analysis, and by identifying the elements that lead to improved safety performance, we can achieve our ultimate goal—to send every single construction employee home in the same—or better—condition than they arrived, every day. If you wish to learn more about STEP and the STEP Management System, visit our safety page or call the ABC office and ask for the safety team. You will not regret it.
