Designing A Company Safety Program

Roughly 9% of the U.S. work force, or about seven million Americans, become injured or ill on the job each year, and thousands of workers die. The affected worker, of course, suffers the most from workplace illness and injury. But a business suffers as well. When your best technician slips while on the job and breaks a leg, not only do you lose his production for three months, but company morale suffers, workers involved in the accident are nonproductive for days and management must spend time on accident reports, paperwork and other time-consuming matters.

The company may also incur heavy costs for overtime or for hiring and training a new worker to cover the technician’s route. Workers’ compensation premiums can increase and the business may even be fined or sued.

Prevention is by far the least expensive alternative. Prevent acci-dents and illnesses by making sure pest control technicians are alert to all the potential risks in their job and then teach them how to minimize or avoid those risks. One way to do that is by designing a comprehensive company safety program, but where do you start? Here are some suggestions.

PROGRAM FEATURES. One of the easiest ways to increase profit is to spend money on safety. But it must be done intelligently, through a company-mandated safety program. An effective company safety program needs to include certain elements: leadership from management, involvement of employees, analysis of workplace hazards, procedures to prevent or avoid hazards, safety training and periodic review and evaluation of the program. Let’s briefly review each of these elements:

Leadership. Managers must set clear and written policies on safety and be directly involved in the program. It must be clear to the work force that management considers safety important and this includes being willing to listen to worker safety concerns and recommendations and to act on them. Management also needs to make clear what is expected of each worker and who is accountable for maintaining certain safety standards.

Employee involvement. Workers should have a way to develop and express their own concerns about safety issues and be formally involved in developing procedures to protect their safety and health. Monthly or quarterly safety meetings are one of the best ways to involve workers, as long as the communication is two-way.

Analysis of hazards. Many hazards in pest control are the same for every pest control company, especially those hazards associated with pesticides. Other hazards differ from one company to the next. Do your technicians work in hospitals? Then they face hazards from needle sticks, communicable diseases, and blood and other bodily fluids. Do you perform pest control in old industrial buildings? If so, your technicians may face special risks from asbestos, falls or electric shock.

A work site analysis means reviewing all work environments to identify conditions and operations where hazards do or could exist, and then developing ways for your workers to avoid or protect themselves from those hazards. Because job sites in pest control change with new contracts and changes at old accounts, there must be periodic safety meetings where workers and management discuss hazardous conditions at each site. There also should be occasional supervisory inspections of work sites to identify new hazards and to evaluate the success of current procedures to avoid hazards. Finally, every accident or near accident should be investigated to identify causes and means of prevention.

Hazard prevention. Once hazards are identified, they must be eliminated (often not possible in pest control because technicians are working on someone else’s property) or controlled to prevent worker exposure. Often this means requiring the use of protective equipment such as respirators in enclosed treatment areas. Or it could mean following certain safety procedures: driving defensively, avoiding asbestos, not reaching under beds and furniture in hospitals to avoid needle sticks, etc. It also can involve planning for emergencies, such as what to do in the event of a pesticide spill.

Safety training. Employee training is successful if all workers understand the hazards they face on the job and know how to protect themselves from those hazards. The safety training component in pest control is more complex than that in most other businesses because each type of account — food plant, hospital, inner-city apartment — has its own characteristic hazards and technicians regularly work in many different types of accounts. Pest control companies need to train their employees to protect themselves in each account. Document that training and periodically review each employee’s records to be sure the training is current. Supervisors also need safety training so they understand their role in job site safety. They have primary responsibility for overseeing workplace safety, for identifying new hazards and inadequate safety procedures and reinforcing and insuring technician safety training.

Review and evaluation. The company safety program should be reviewed in its entirety, probably once a year, to measure whether it is doing the job. Specifically, the review should assess whether all hazards have been identified, safety procedures are adequate, training is current and effective and workers are acting responsibly to protect health and safety.

CONCLUSION. Developing a company safety program requires time, money, people resources and a commitment from management, but it’s time and money well spent and will enhance your company’s bottom line in the long run.

The author is an industry consultant based in Mechanicsville, Md., and author of the book, Regulatory Compliance: A Practical Guide for Pest Control Firms. To order a copy of the book, call Fran Franzak at 800/456-0707. Cost is $59 plus $4 shipping and handling. For additional information, refer to the advertisement on page 101.