Commitment vs. Compliance

June 5, 2019 | by Avid Risk

I am Marcus Canty, an Occupational Health and Safety Professional. I joined AVID with over 15 years of experience in developing as well as managing safety and health programs within multiple industries including manufacturing, highway transportation, radiation assembly, and utilities.

Compliance

Following compliance with OSHA regulations doesn’t always lead to a reduction of injuries, although it does help prevent most serious or life-threatening injuries. There are far too many potential workplace safety hazards for OSHA to address all of them. By following the minimal OSHA regulations on some of the most hazardous tasks will still lead to injury. An example of this would be an electrical arc flash or personal fall arrest system.

Commitment

On the other hand, being committed to safety aims to reduce ALL potential injuries/workers comp claims. This can be accomplished by expanding on OSHA regulations and thinking outside of the box. For example, just applying salt (often too much) to an icy parking lot there is still a high potential for an employee to slip and fall. If we supply employees with yak-traks in addition to using salt, then we see a reduction in injuries, workers comp claims, salt usage, and help the environment.

I am a huge advocate of reduction of salt usage because most of time it’s applied in ways that are not effective, it’s bad for our public water ways. Especially when we can often remove ice by manual means or divert the runoff, so it doesn’t thaw and refreeze.

My personal challenge is to continue to find ways to be ways to be committed to safety, I challenge you to do the same. If I can help you or your company in any way please contact me either at 608.827.4525 or via email at Marcus.canty@AVIDRisk.com.