You Want The Corner Safety Office Article Review Write a review of the article that includes the following items:a brief introduction to the article,a summ

You Want The Corner Safety Office Article Review Write a review of the article that includes the following items:a brief introduction to the article,a summary and analysis of the key points in the article,a discussion related to the concept of return on investment considerations for advocating the implementation of appropriate controls, anda summary of the article’s conclusions and your own opinions.The assignment must be in APA format and at least two pages in length, not including title and reference pages. BEST PRACTICES
SO YOU WANT THE
CORNER SAFETY OFFICE?
By Michael Saujani
The term corner office is typically used to indicate a senior management executive position within a company
such as a CEO, CFO or vice president (VP) whose office is located in the corner of the main floor or on the
penthouse of the corporate building. In modern times the physical location of executive offices may have
changed, but the hierarchy of communication and access to power has not.
The occupants of the corner offices
remain the most powerful people in the
organization.
Power and access to top company decision makers is determined by one’s role
and responsibility in the organization’s
structure and how important others
view that responsibility and associated
decision-making power. The role of the
OSH director/VP is to furnish a place of
employment free from recognized hazards that could cause injury of any type,
serious or minor, to company associates,
visitors and customers, and to provide
leadership that ensures development of
outstanding safety culture throughout the
company (Saujani, 2016b).
Leadership Path
To fill a senior level position, the
board will closely evaluate an applicant’s
character more than his/her technical
ability. To my surprise, when I was hired
for the senior level position I was asked
only two questions by the CEO to evaluate my character: “What is the last management book you have read,” and “What
is a phrase you remember and comes to
you now?” My answers were Who Moved
My Cheese by Spencer Johnson, and “see
you at the top,” a phrase used by Zig
Ziglar to end his audio presentations. I
got the job and the CEO never regretted
his decision.
Of course, top-notch safety education
and credentials are required to accomplish responsibilities. Because safety
needs are diverse, the education requirements for a particular position may
differ as well. My background in safety
and education was diverse; I believe
this is what got me the corner office. I
graduated with a bachelor’s degree with
distinction in Mechanical Engineering
from University of Bombay. Later, I took
several graduate level courses in industrial engineering and fire protection at
Illinois Institute of Technology. I took
several commercial insurance courses
such as insurance law and safety-related
courses leading to various designations
including certified safety professional,
certified property and casualty underwriter, claims management and associate in loss control management. The
engineering and insurance knowledge
I gained through my education helped
me to achieve personal and professional
goals. One recognition was being selected as corporate director and VP of environmental health and safety.
A diverse safety background is needed
to occupy the corner office. I started my
career as a factories inspector in Uganda
where I inspected various factories for
compliance to safety in manufacturing
operations. When I later moved to the
U.S., I worked for several large insurance
companies, inspecting and providing
safety consulting services to manufacturing and construction operations. I also
developed and presented safety training
programs educating management and
workers. I gained more than 20 years of
field loss control consultant and managerial experience with various insurance
companies before I occupied the corner
office at a large multistate printing company managing its safety and risk management program, and later as CEO of my
own consulting firm.
The job of a factories inspector in
Uganda and the U.K. is similar to that of
an OSHA compliance officer in the U.S.
The job included inspecting business
operations for the government to ensure
compliance to safety standards as outlined
in the Factories Act. The only difference
is that a factories inspector is required to
prosecute businesses for safety violations
in a criminal court. The work of an insurance company loss control consultant
is to survey businesses for property and
casualty hazards, identify exposures to
a potential loss and submit a report on
how the business can control these loss
exposures. The consultant would generally offer safety training to management
and employees so that the identified loss
exposures are properly managed and con-
trolled. A consultant is not responsible or
accountable for any injuries or losses at
client facilities but can be held liable for
negligent performance.
When you occupy a company’s top
position, the buck will stop at your desk.
You will be responsible and accountable
for anything and everything that happens
within your area of responsibility. That
can be nerve-racking for some.
For young collegians in the safety field
who are intelligent and career minded,
the path should not take long if they develop a road map for success. The path is
worth it, both financially and personally,
even if it takes as many years as it took me
to secure the corner office.
I bumped into the corporate safety
director position purely by luck, but I
helped create this opportunity for myself. My prior work and education had
prepared me for success. I had a meeting
with the board of directors of a large
printing company because the company had poor loss experience. Its safety
initiatives were managed by a maintenance volunteer. I asked the company
board members if they would authorize
a volunteer to run its finances, quality
control or manufacturing operations.
They answered with an emphatic, “No.” I
suggested that the company hire a safety
professional to manage its safety initiatives to improve its safety results. To my
surprise, the company hired me to manage its safety responsibilities.
Road Map for Success
It is important to put together a road
map for success showing your current
situation and where you want to go. If you
really desire the corner office, the best
time to put together a successful road
map to achieve that goal is in college.
Once you are in the corner office,
you must have a vision and a mission
that you constantly strive to realize.
My vision was to send every company
employee back to his/her family safely
every day and at the same time prove
assp.org JULY 2018 PROFESSIONAL SAFETY PSJ 25
BEST PRACTICES
to management that safety makes good
business sense. Every day I prayed for
the safety of my employees and welfare
of my company. It motivated me to be
innovative and put programs in place to
achieve that goal.
Develop Communication
Skills & Priorities
Every office has its politics and corporate offices are no different. People will
try to undermine you when you speak
differently or try to accomplish goals they
do not understand. They may worry that
your work will take away some of their
resources. I relied on my boss to protect
me from office politics. I did everything
he wanted me to do for business and he
protected me from infighting. The cardinal rule I followed was to take care of the
boss’s business needs (within reason).
You must develop and apply high-level communication skills to convince
senior-level management to work with
you to achieve the mission of sending
employees home safely every day while
protecting company assets. Because senior management as a group is financially
savvy, it is important to show the financial benefits of the safety initiatives. You
should be able to use return on investment, cost of noncompliance, loss analysis
and other techniques to show financial
and moral benefits to the organization.
Learning to accurately foresee and
predict future safety hazards is key. This
ability has helped me gain confidence
from executives and save the company
money. On one occasion, the company
planned to buy a large, multimillion
dollar press and move it to one of our
plants in 3 months. Just before the deal
was closed, I asked for a certificate of
insurance to protect the company interest in case there was an incident on the
press while it was in the care and custody
of the seller. We secured a certificate
of insurance, naming the company as
an additional insured in the insurance
policy. Sure enough, there was a serious
incident on the press a month after its
purchase. The intervention helped to
prevent a serious loss and embarrassment for senior executives. On another
occasion, the company purchased a plant
on the East Coast where hurricanes
frequently occur. The roof design was
inadequate for sustaining high hurricane
wind velocity. On my advice, the company purchased the facility only after the
roof structure was reinforced to sustain
higher wind velocity.
Continue Educating Yourself
It is important to attend safety conferences such as ASSP’s Professional
Development Conference (PDC) and
continually educate yourself by learning
new things and applying these to your organization to create efficiency. My goal for
attending any conference is to bring back
at least one idea that I can implement
at the plant for safety and production
efficiency. At one PDC, a company was
demonstrating a vacuum lift to minimize
ergonomic related injuries. I recognized
how the vacuum lift could be applied to
our palletizing operation. I presented my
idea to senior executives who then bought
the vacuum lift at a significant expense.
Savings in efficiency and cost of past injuries outweighed the cost of the lift.
Continually educate yourself, senior
management and employees in safety.
You will need to delegate some of your
activities while keeping the responsibilities in your hands. Work together with
employees or senior executives to deliver
presentations jointly. In the process, you
will work together with management and
employees to spread the word of safety,
and train and educate them as well.
Manage Data, Claims & Risk
Companies are data driven. Senior
management love data: financial data,
production data, percent turnover, quality control, product failure rate, to name
a few. You need to collect, analyze and
disseminate safety data to senior management explaining what the data means
and what you plan to do to manage the
situations identified in the data. The data
you collect and analyze could be incident
rates, lost workday, injury and illness
rates, loss analysis, safety observations
completed, training provided or experience modification rates.
You will need to actively manage claims
working with insurance claims team and
your local management teams so that
injured employees are properly cared
for and costs are controlled (Donaldson,
1984). Share success stories with senior
management during a regular briefing
session. Better, invite them to attend some
of the claims management team meetings.
This will actively engage them in the process of managing claims and taking care
of injured employees.
You will need to effectively work with
insurance company loss control workers
and underwriters so the pricing for your
commercial insurance product is controlled and the company receives the best
26 PSJ PROFESSIONAL SAFETY JULY 2018 assp.org
insurance pricing available. You need to
work with the insurance company as a
successful partner in managing company risks. Several times in my career, the
insurance company underwriters who
partnered with us paid for and presented
management and employee safety training so as to educate and engage employees
in safety.
Working in the corner office and engaging employee union leaders can be
tricky. However, realize and emphasize
that their goals are the same: the prosperity, safety and well-being of company employees. I made sure to consult with the
union steward and update him on future
safety initiatives, asking for his advice
and support. Respecting the union role
and responsibility helped to successfully
implement various safety initiatives in a
union environment.
Increase Participation
Share your experiences with safety professionals at conferences by participating
and presenting. I have delivered presentations at the Chicagoland Safety and
Health Conference and the Future Safety
Leaders Conference.
At one such conference, Jill James delivered a keynote presentation, “What I
Wish I Knew When I Started in Safety,” in
which she discussed the increased participation of women in safety engineering.
My daughter, Reshma Saujani, CEO of the
nonprofit organization Girls Who Code,
has made it her life’s mission to increase
women’s participation in computer science
engineering and the corporate boardroom.
She is an avid keynote speaker at various
women’s conferences and a writer. I asked
for her take on the corner office. She says
there are a lot more women in executive
roles, so one must learn to respect and
work with women. She also noted that the
extensive travel and time away from family
can cause burnout for many executives, so
they must learn to manage it.
The number of women in the corner
office will increase in the future as more
and more companies are trying to elevate women’s leadership with inclusive
policies. These companies feel female
leadership will bring new blood and innovative safety ideas to future generations
that has not yet been tapped. This would
encourage everyone to support women in
the undertaking of new and challenging
responsibilities, assignments and projects,
mentoring them to be successful.
A stronger pool of female leaders will
create a mutually beneficial work envi-
GRADYREESE/E+/GETTY IMAGES
ronment requiring respect and sensitivity
in communicating ideas and requests.
More and more women leaders are mentoring girls to be brave and to demand
an increased role in managing company’s
engineering departments or to control its
safety and environmental technical policies. As exemplified by Reshma Saujani
in her 2016 TED talk, “when companies
have diverse teams, and have incredible
women that are part of their engineering
teams, they build awesome things, and we
see it every day.”
of OSHA insurance company and business
operations. It is important to have a road
map for success, a clear vision and mission
where you want the organization to be and
be able to work successfully with partners
including senior executives, employees,
union and third-party vendors, particularly the insurance providers. Use data to
guide you to success. Always remember
your success depends on your employees
going back to their families safely every
day and your company making a profit in
the process. PSJ
Conclusion
References
Getting a corner office is a lot of work
with significant responsibility. With
hard work and perseverance, anyone can
achieve this goal. Develop a road map for
success early in your career, dedicate your
heart fully to the safety profession and to
your success as a safety professional, continually learn and apply new techniques
and you can make it happen. Recognize
that the office of the corporate director/
VP of safety is one of several powerful
positions available to safety professionals
today. This article describes securing and
managing this awesome responsibility, but
the principles discussed can be applied to
all corporate executive responsibilities.
To summarize, the current crop of
safety professionals is in a better position
to secure and maintain high-level safety
executive level responsibility. They need to
ensure that their education and work experience is well rounded and includes technical, legal and communication skill sets. It
is important to have a good understanding
Adler, N. & Saujani, M. (2004, March). Safety at Fort Dearborn Co.: Transforming from
“most wanted” to best in class. Professional
Safety, 49(3), 25–31.
ASSP. (2018, June 1). Education. Retrieved
from www.assp.org/education
Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter.
(2018, May). Insurance operations. Retrieved
from www.theinstitutes.org/course/insurance
-operations
Donaldson, J. (1984). Casualty claim practice. Homewood, IL: Richard D. Irwin Inc.
Girls Who Code. (2016). Girls who code:
Join 40,000 girls who code today. Retrieved
from https://girlswhocode.com
Hansell, C. (2012). Become a transformational safety leader. Presented at America’s
Safety Conference, Chicago, IL.
James, J. (2017). What I wish I knew when
I started in safety. Presented at Future Safety
Leaders Conference, Lombard, IL.
Johnson, M.D. (1998). Who moved my
cheese. New York, NY: G.P. Putnams Sons.
NCCI. (2016). ABCs of experience rating.
Retrieved from www.ncci.com/Articles/Docu
ments/UW_ABC_Exp_Rating.pdf
OSHA. (2017, April 6). All about OSHA.
Retrieved from www.osha.gov/Publications/
about-osha/3302-06N-2006-English.html
Pais, D. (2011, June). Showing EHS value
through return on investment (ROI). Presented at Safety 2011, Chicago, IL.
Saujani, M. (2016a, Nov.). How to cultivate
a world-class safety culture: Actively engaging
employees using the five pillars of safety. North
Charleston, SC: CreateSpace.
Saujani, M. (2016b, Feb.). World-class safety
culture: Applying the five pillars of safety. Professional Safety, 61(2), 37-41.
Saujani, R. (2013). Women who don’t wait
in line, break the mold lead the way. New York,
NY: New Harvest.
Saujani, R. (2016, March 28). Teach girls
bravery, not perfection. Retrieved from www
.ted.com/talks/reshma_saujani_teach_girls
_bravery_not_perfection
Mindtools. (2018, April 8). Seven ways to
use office politics positively: Getting what
you want without playing dirty. Retrieved
from www.mind tools.com/pages/article/
newCDV_85.htm
Uganda Legal Information Institute. (1953).
Factories act. Retrieved from https://ulii.org/
ug/legislation/consolidated-act/220
Ziglar, Z. (1975). See you at the top. Gretna,
LA: Pelican Publishing.
Michael Saujani, CSP, CPCU, ARM, is CEO of MKS Safety, a loss control consulting firm. He authored
How to Cultivate World-class Safety Culture: Actively Engaging Employees Using the Five Pillars of
Safety, and several articles. As corporate safety director at Fort Dearborn Co., he has delivered several
presentations at Chicagoland Safety Conference on defining and developing world-class safety culture.
Saujani holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. He is a professional member of ASSP’s Northeastern
Illinois Chapter and a member of the Society’s Management Practice Specialty.
assp.org JULY 2018 PROFESSIONAL SAFETY PSJ 27
Reproduced with permission of copyright owner. Further reproduction
prohibited without permission.

Purchase answer to see full
attachment