Safety First?

Special Commentary: A Safety Expert’s Take on the RC Safety Survey

by Chip Macdonald

Let me start by saying that there are notable occupations which our society cannot do without. Like death and taxes, food, clothing and a roof over our heads are universal constants. However, it is remarkable to me that Roofing Contractor would consider conducting such an analytical study of the roofing industry in the first place, particularly in the current economic environment. Due to many socio-economic factors, the roofing industry is suffering from increased pressures in order to simply survive.

The long-range benefits of a dedicated movement toward “zero accidents” and “safety first” behavior are often lost to the profit margin, even in boom times. The inclination to self-assess your own industry during a severe and lengthy market downturn is, in my opinion, courageous. Most agree that opinion surveys are based on the premise that those queried are responding fully, accurately and truthfully. With more than 30 years investigating and interviewing safety in the field, however, it’s my opinion that most good faith responses to questions of safety behavior are as much about what the individual wants the truth to be as what the truth actually is. With that considered, the survey was very enlightening to me.

The Response Rate

The 3 percent national response rate (150 total) from a notoriously reticent segment of the workforce (construction) was probably anticipated. I would expect those contractors with weak and nonexistent safety programs, high injury rates, and token levels of management commitment to opt out of any published survey on risk management trends. However, a few of the responses hinted that some of these contractors did not back down. The demographic data (available online at www.roofingcontractor.com) indicated to me that the 2011 survey group was diversified: there were equal numbers of large and small contractors; there were equal numbers with gross sales above and below 1$ million. As corporate safety cultures are tied very closely to these two factors — size and sales — I was impressed by the equity for such a small statistical sample.

Safety and Profits

If the future of the roofing industry is to be augured, the question about the safety program’s effect on profit and loss is the keystone to this entire survey. It suggests that over half (58 percent) of the contractors surveyed are optimistic about the effects that safety has on profits. Only 14 percent are discouraged about this relationship, and about a quarter believe that safety and profit are not dating steady. I was taught young that “If you can see it first, you can build it later.” The 58 percent who remain optimistic that safety will (eventually) generate greater profit are the industry leaders who others will follow. I consider these the psychological tough-guys of the industry.

Company Commitment

When it comes down to actually targeting a workforce at zero accidents, the rubber always meets the road somewhere in middle management. The role of OSHA’s employer-designated competent person (CP) in any construction firm is the tip of the spear. Regardless of the number of hats he or she wears, nothing comes before his/her duties and authority to protect workers at any cost. The graph in Figure 6 implies that the direct hiring of a CP in 2011 who has no other obligatory or conflicting interests was considered a reasonable step to take by only a quarter of the respondents. However, OSHA’s Rules of Construction (1926.21) legally mandate every employer to designate one or more CPs to implement and audit the accident prevention program on site.

Personal Protective Equipment

I was discouraged that the foremost safety tool, according to Figure 6, given to the line worker is still (and probably always will be) personal protective equipment (PPE). PPE does not remove the hazard but simply invites it closer to the body. For instance, Personal Fall Arrest Systems (PFAS) allow the worker to suffer the effects of a fall, while a guardrail or restraint system (engineering control) prevents the fall from initiating. OSHA mandates the employer designate a CP for selection, fit-testing, inspecting, evaluating and training PPE primarily because the stuff can be dangerous in the hands of those unqualified. If the steps to improve a roofing contractor’s safety culture has its priorities in PPE first (83 percent) and delegating a behavior-based safety program second (48 percent), achieving zero accidents simply becomes an unrealistic goal.

Training Techniques

The graph in Figure 6 also showed a lot of good news. This chart included the most modern methods of training a workforce and creating a new and behavior-based safety culture. Perhaps, as a safety professional, I’ll actually live to see the day when “tribal knowledge” philosophies and barnyard-style on-the-job-training (putting the new calf with the old cow) come to an end. While I continue to see these primitive, old-school training practices on a daily basis here in the Northeast, I was encourage to realize these proven, professional and competent techniques of training and evaluating employees in safe work practices are encouraged elsewhere.

Employee Surveys

Almost a fifth of the respondents plan on involving their roofers in their own safety program (i.e., employee perception surveys). Who’d ever think roofing contractors really cared about what their workers thought about safety on the job? OSHA considers employees’ involvement in their own health and safety program to be mandatory. The fact is, ownership always encourages compliance. This encouragement indicates that roofing contractors are beginning to show signs of maturing.

Reality Check

In 2009 the Bureau of Labor Statistics fatality rate for construction workers was 9.7 per 100,000 (816 deaths). The same year the fatality rate for roofers was 34.7 per 100,000 (60 deaths). Workers’ compensation insurance premiums in the aerial trades have skyrocketed, becoming a major line item in any bid. Today, finishing a roof without an accident is paramount to being below budget and ahead of schedule.

Doing things differently depends on the three E’s: educate, enact and enable. First, employees must be competently educated by their employer in methods to work on roofs safely. Then they must choose to enact those safe work practices, and the employer must enable them to work safely regardless of productivity or profit. If all three E’s are not in place and practiced, eventually somebody’s going to get hurt or killed, and there goes the insurance rate as well as future jobs.

A Never-Ending Task

We all know that if roofing was easy and safe, everyone would be doing it, and everyone isn’t. According to this safety survey, the industry as a whole is apparently taking its first steps to changing its future. My sincere congratulations go out to all those who continually endeavor to keep everyone safe, even with no end in sight.

Chip Macdonald of Best Safety, Cambridge, N.Y., offers safety program implementation and management tailored to companies of all sizes. He can be reached at 888-913-2378 or bestsafe@capital.net.

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