Consistent and creative communication gets safety messages across in industry

To fight complacency in the employee ranks, metal fabricating companies have to demonstrate the value of a safe work environment. Aksana Kavaleuskaya/iStock/Getty Images Plus

A safety manager looks at the world—or at least a room—a little bit differently than others in manufacturing.

I remember an FMA Safety Conference from several years ago, and one of the presenters paused before an introduction and asked attendees to notice the exits from the room. Should an emergency occur, the safety professional wanted everyone to know the most direct path out of the meeting space.

That struck me at the time as a bit of overkill, but I will admit that I now find myself looking for exits in large gathering spaces. That out-of-the-ordinary request to take a moment to think about safety stuck with me.

But what if that similar reminder occurred before every meeting or conversation? Would employees tune it out after a while?

The subject of complacency came up during a discussion with Ray Michelena, the safety director at T.J. Snow Co., a manufacturer of resistance welding equipment based in Chattanooga, Tenn., and the winner of the 2022 Rusty Demeules Award for Safety Excellence. Michelena said that complacency leads to a greater chance of injury in the shop, so it’s imperative that employees remain engaged in what they are doing and whether the correct precautions have been taken to keep everyone safe.

In particular, Michelena referred to a concept called “Safety Third,” which was coined by Mike Rowe, the host of Discovery Channel’s “Dirty Jobs.”

“The reason I believe that safety should be third is that it’s so important you can’t really put it at No. 1. Because if you put it at No. 1 and say it over and over and over again, then you start to get complacent,” Rowe said in a YouTube video from 2014, referring to the numerous breaks and sprains he had sustained over the years doing the show. Rowe suggested they occurred because “I take my eye off the ball, and I start to think that maybe someone, somewhere, cares more about my well-being than me.”

In short, slogans and posters don’t make for a safe work environment. Rowe believes an individual’s own personal commitment to safety is the best way to actually stay injury-free.

That’s hard to disagree with. However, the push for safety awareness shouldn’t be dialed back in any manufacturing environment. It just needs to be treated seriously, not as a regulatory-forced reflex. People know when their time is being wasted, so don’t waste it.

The Demeules Award-winning companies understand this. When their shop floor teams hold their pre-shift meetings, they incorporate safety into the discussion. They discuss the details and possible remedies for lost time that resulted in injuries and the near misses that almost resulted accidents. They treat these scenarios as opportunities for improvement, not just some exercise to prove to OSHA that they are worthy of minimal punitive damages should something occur. They try their best to ensure that these learning moments resonate with the employees.

While some might laugh these moments off, they help to create a culture of responsibility. Once employees see an investment being made in adjustable-height tables to accommodate an older co-worker who might have back issues, for example, they understand that management is invested in their collective well-being. Actions definitely speak louder than the words on the safety-related posters and t-shirts.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the incident rate for nonfatal occupational injury and illness in 2020 for the fabricated metal product manufacturing sector (NAICS 332) was 3.6. (The incident rate represents the number of injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time equivalent workers.) That pales in comparison to private nursing care facilities (15.7) and even private skiing facilities (10.0). For all the things that are a potential hazard in a metal fabricating environment, shop floor workers, for the most part, are staying out of harm’s way.

So, Rowe is right, and “Safety Third” isn’t that big of a deal because it's only words on a hat or a can cooler, both available at www.mikeroweworks.org/shop.

Safety is important, and it’s up to the company to prove that to its employees. Once that buy-in occurs, an organization is ready to tackle more than just reducing injury rates. It’s poised to take on all the challenges that demanding customers can throw at them.