It was in 1987 that The Business Roundtable made the first CISE awards. It was noted that two of the awardees, an owner and a contractor, had performed their work without Lost Workday cases for two years and four years respectively. The owner had used over 2,000,000 hours of labor without a single lost workday case. The contractor had worked four years with a 600 worker crew without a single Lost Workday Case, an amazing 4,800,000 hours. These amazing achievements were soon labeled the "Zero Injury" phenomenon borrowing from author Philip Crosby's "Zero Defect" approach to Quality. Soon after, the Construction Industry Institute located at the University of Texas, Austin, agreed to perform indepth research into the question of "How do some contractors and owners achieve millions of hours worked in construction without a single serious injury."Zero Injury" as a concept is frequently misunderstood. Many say that it is unreasonable to expect workers to go uninjured, therefore "Zero Injury" is a misnomer. In this sense it might be, but like all words there is frequently more than one meaning.
Properly defined as now used, the term "Zero Injury" represents a position by management in the interest of the workers. The "Zero Injury" position adopted by employers top leaders is this: Zero injury is the desired end product. Any injury is unacceptable on its face. We are committed to "eliminate injury from the workplace." This top leader stance sends the unfailing message to all employees that any injury is an unacceptable "non-quality" event.
With this definition, from the CEO on down in the organization, all management knows that there is no higher priority than to complete the work without injury. This is "safety commitment redefined."The world record for hours worked without a recordable in constrution using the Zero Injury Concept now stands at 33,000,000+ hours. The contractor? S&B Engineers & Constructors of Houston Texas. The world record for hours worked without a Recordable now stands at 4,600,000 hours. The contractor? Again S&B of Houston, Texas.
This amazing performance has been achieved while embracing the notion that Zero Injury is the only acceptable end product of safety. Have these believers totally eliminated injury? No. But one can hardly argue with their success. Have these employers had to spend money on enlarged safety program content? The answer is Yes. They have spent significant sums of money in the area of safety awareness and education, but rather than lose money they have increased profit margins markedly because there are indeed greater losses in a workplace filled with the direct and indirect cost of injury than most people are willing to consider.
The Zero Injury concept is based on the principal lead safety technique of a "Demonstrated Senior Management commitment to eliminate injury." Flowing from this is a renewed commitment at all levels in an organization to work injury free. Once the employees see such a commitment to their welfare from their leaders they become more productive. This is not a theory. It is proven fact. Why is this? Call today for your introduction to Zero Injury.
The Zero Injury concept does not mean another injury will never occur. But it does mean a commitment to working as many hours as you possibly can without another injury. And it means that if an injury does occur it is not just another "ho-hum" event because with the "Zero Injury" concept in place any injury is unacceptable and people react accordingly. Safety of the workers becomes primary! When all understand this, it is then the "extremely high cost" of worker injury can be reduced to sums that were only in your dreams prior to seeing it happen in your workplace.
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