Keeping People Safe

Book excerpt: Many companies have taken steps to improve awareness and management of safety systems, yet safety directors continue to report high injury rates. In Keeping People Safe: The Human Dynamics of Injury Prevention, author Josh Williams provides safety leaders with information they can use to further reduce injuries and improve workplace safety. This book addresses five integral components of workplace safety: Systems/Conditions, Leadership, Behaviors, People-Factors, and Communication. It recommends strategies for every aspect of safety management from organizational commitment and safety culture to improving managerial behavior and working with union members. These recommendations are based on years of practical experience, empirical research on the human dynamics of safety, and seminal studies in social psychology on authority and conformity. Utilizing the hugely influential and widely practiced model of Behavior Based Safety, Williams provides the safety manager with all the tools needed to lower injury rates and improve safety. Numerous charts and tables, a checklist for improving safety performance, and a foreword by world-renowned safety leader E. Scott Geller complement the text.