At BIOKINETIX, our goal is to help businesses show their commitment to safety.
The creators of both OSHA’s Recommended Practices for Safety and Health Programs and NSC’s Journey to Safety Excellence have identified 3 key components that are essential to the success of any occupational safety program:
- Management leadership
- Worker participation
- A systematic approach to finding and fixing hazards
This week, we helped partners like Southern Company, US Foods, and UPS to further raise awareness of the value of each element necessary to sustain exceptional safety and health outcomes.
As this year’s Safe + Sound Week comes to a close, we continue to reflect on the big-picture impact that these three components can have on the workforce. As a company, our vision of this impact extends far beyond a single week. BIOKINETIX provides more than solutions; we actively support companies in cultivating a proactive and innovative culture of safety that will serve them for years to come.
Going forward, we’d like to share three affirmations that represent our commitment to achieving OSHA’s objectives in the programs we deliver every single day of the year:
- Safety is a way of life
- Safety must be proactive
- Sustainable safety requires top-down commitment
Safety is a way of life
Safety is more than x amount of days without an injury. It’s something you practice every day.
While metrics such as recordable injury frequency and lost time can be neatly quantified on paper, the intangible benefits of safety and health promotion are somewhat more difficult to express. We define this as UpTime: the freedom to pursue individual and organizational growth unencumbered by the burden of preventable injury.
Let’s unpack that statement.
On an individual level, well-being is a key factor in determining overall quality of life. When you experience an injury, the impact this can have on your well-being includes more than just impaired physical function. A work-related injury can limit your ability to perform routine tasks both on and off the job, such as recreational sports or household upkeep. It can contribute to lifelong joint pain, or even inhibit progress in your career journey. For employees, more UpTime means being able to be present and thrive in the physical, emotional, and social aspects of their lives. It’s one of the most valuable benefits a company can give to its employees.
On an organizational level, this burden is manifested through financial consequences. Each injury that could have been prevented—but was not— creates a chain of direct and indirect costs which, cumulatively, impedes company growth in the long term. Maintaining a culture of safety and health, regardless of company size or industry sector, is an undeniable competitive advantage.
Safety must be proactive
Another critical aspect of workplace safety is proactivity in finding and fixing hazards—to constantly observe how work is being performed in order to ensure that behavior is aligned with safety culture.
Being proactive in risk management gives companies the opportunity to address personal risk factors, such as soreness and discomfort, that have high potential to lead to employee injuries if left unmitigated.
Our early intervention programs incorporate the idea of a safety mindset by creating employee awareness of at-risk behavior directly within the work environment. We identify and correct these risks in real time by delivering best-practice training on proper body positioning and ergonomics.
To be proactive is also recognizing that not every risk can be anticipated or eliminated completely, which is why we’ve made exercise an integral component in our approach to safety. Warming up for just a few minutes each day helps employees prepare their muscles, joints, and ligaments for the physical demands of the work they perform, from prolonged sitting to repetitive material handling.
Sustainable safety requires top-down commitment
As a company, we believe that even the most innovative safety initiatives will not succeed without management leadership. Throughout all levels of management—from the CEO, directors, and supervisors, to hourly employees—accountability to workplace safety must be consistently prioritized and communicated. Both the message and mindset should be set from the top, which means that the desired organizational outcomes should align with policies and protocol that affect each member of the workforce.
Management leadership has a direct and critical impact on worker participation. Safety-minded organizations see the value of supporting employees in becoming active participants in their own safety and health.
Part of what makes BIOKINETIX solutions successful is that they are designed specifically to achieve employee buy-in. Our programs are managed by licensed athletic trainers who, in addition to sports medicine and musculoskeletal injury prevention, are experts in making safety training stick. They understand the importance of communicating the personal benefits of safety and well-being measures to employees; to educate in a way that answers the question “why should I care?”; and to make these goals relevant and actionable on an individual level.
Employees who are motivated to practice proper body positioning and avoid at-risk behavior bring improved performance and better compliance; they are empowered by understanding they are expected to speak up when they feel a job is not being done safely, without fear of facing repercussions.
This week, we encourage you to join us in celebrating the companies and safety professionals that go above and beyond to maintain a culture of safety and health in their workplace—from the plant floor all the way up to the corporate suite.
