Financial Decision Makers' Views On Safety What SH&E Professionals Should Know

IN 2006, A TOTAL OF 5,840 FATAL occupational injuries occurred in private industry in theU.S. (BLS, 2008). In addition, 4.1 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses were reported, which means that 4.4 nonfatal occupational injuries or illnesses were reported for every 100 full-time-equivalent workers in the U.S. Rosenman, Kalush, Reilly, et al. (2006) have suggested that these statistics are a cause for employer concern, especially in light of a recent study which indicated that the BLS's system for recording work-related injuries and illnesses undercounts the total number of injuries associated with chronic or acute conditions. Most SH&E professionals are verymuch aware of these statistics and endeavor to reduce the numbers of occupational fatalities, injuries and illnesses. Often, however, there are limits as to what SH&E professionals can do to positively impact occupational safety. For example, practitioners may not be in a position to ultimately determine what and how company resources are allocated to safety interventions. They may often have to find ways to convince higher-level managers—who set priorities and control the budget—of the need to fund occupational safety efforts, and of the critical role their support can play in their company's occupational safety. Research has supported the concept that a positive association exists between top management support and improved workplace safety and health outcomes (Cohen, 1977; Griffiths, 1985; Marsh, Davies, Phillips, et al., 1998). Griffiths (1985) found that top management commitment to safety and health was associated with reduced lost-time injuries in the industrial gas industry. Sawacha, Naoum and Fong (1999) found that top managements' attitudes toward safety played a significant role in safety performance. Despite these findings, research to assess the safety priorities and safety concerns of top-level executives/managers (such as corporate financial decisionmakers) has been limited. For SH&E professionals, it can be anticipated that knowing something about top management's priorities and concerns would help to improve communication with these individuals. This article is part of a larger study (DeArmond, Huang & Chen, 2007; Huang, Leamon, Courtney, et al., 2007) that attempted to address this issue by exploring corporate financial decision makers' perceptions of safety issues. The purpose of this article is to highlight results that identified corporate financial decision makers' perceived leading safety priorities, concerns and losses; their perceived financial impact of safety; and issues regarding safety programs in order to help SH&E professionals communicate more effectively with decision makers. The goal is to provide information that may help shape communications between SH&E professionals and financial managers. The Survey Participants & Procedure This study focused onmedium- to large-sized companies (100 employees ormore), anticipating that they were more likely to have an individual dedicated to corporate finance. Survey questions were developed by the project teamwith additional contributions from research scientists, SH&E professionals and market research professionals. A pilot study was conducted with 11 financial decision makers to test the questionnaire and identify potentialmethods for increasing the response rate (Huang, et al., 2007). The questions have content validity as they were developed, verified and tested by various subject-matter experts.