Safety or safely – does it matter?

Do we manage safety, or do we manage safely? Does it really matter and what is the difference anyway?

These are important questions that lead us to consider what kind of occupational safety and health (OSH) professional we are and the approach of our organisations to delivering a safe and healthy workplace.

Safety is a noun that refers to the state of being free from harm, while safely is an adverb that indicates actions are carried out to avoid harm. In my past experience as a consultant, the predominant use of one term or the other by managers often shed light on the maturity of the organisation and its approach to good OSH performance.

Those organisations whose managers talked about managing safety often betrayed their inner belief that safety wasn’t fully part of the day job. That safety is a separate ‘thing’ to be managed. A bolt-on consideration to worry about over and above our normal productivity concerns.

Pyramid picking

Let me illustrate this with an example. Let’s consider the manual handling risk of pyramid picking in a warehouse. This is where the warehouse operatives continually pick the box closest to them until the pallet resembles the side of an Egyptian pyramid. The problem being that having to reach out for a box at the top of the pyramid over-stretches the worker, who then holds the weight away from the body, putting strain on the lower back.

The ‘managing safety’ manager may look at this and become frustrated that the warehouse operatives are not picking as taught in their training. And they may immediately think about disciplining someone to set an example to the others, enforcing the required standards.

The managing safely manager would consider things more deeply. They ask why is this happening? Is the quality of the manual handling training good enough? Who is doing this task: full-time or agency workers and do we need to train or supervise them differently? Is the picking system driving warehouse operatives to take shortcuts due to a perceived lack of time? How have we as managers developed a working process where this hazardous habit has formed?  

Root causes

The managing safely manager is looking for root causes to identify further development of the production system as a whole, so that warehouse operatives are inspired and engaged to pick boxes safely.

Of course, for those that don’t know, the correct way to pick a pallet of boxes is by level. The box at the back can then be slid across the complete level below it, moving it close to the body before lifting.

So, should we talk in terms of managing safety, or managing safely? Which term do you promote in your organisation? Personally, I am in the managing safely camp.