Novel Idea: Safety Strategies — A Forward-Looking Entrepreneur Spreads the “Gospel” of Risk Management to Clients in Thoughtful Book

 

Adam Friedlander gets it.

Communicating with clients on a level that treats them seriously enough to receive the thoughts of widely recognized trendsetters accomplishes a lot. Friedlander, a leader in Safety Group creation and management, has written a new book entitled: Safety and Workers’ Compensation Strategies To Unleash Productivity and Profits,” a series of interviews with top guns in risk management and related fields. It’s handsomely presented and a relatively quick read.

The leaders interviewed share a profound caring for the well-being of others and a passionate drive for innovative improvements in processes and solutions, according to Friedlander. The leaders discuss innovative safety and workers’ compensation strategies that enable businesses to enhance productivity and push profits up.

The book includes interviews with the following people:

• Paul O’Neill, the 72nd Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, serving from 2001 to 2002, and chairman of Alcoa from 1987 to 1999
• Bill O’Rourke, president of Alcoa Russia from 2005 to 2008, senior advisor at Value Capture LLC, and coauthor of The Power of Ethics
• Stephen Newell, partner at ORCHSE Strategies global consulting that services 120 large multinational corporations on safety, health, and environmental matters, and author of the OSHA Blue Book with one million copies sold
• David DePaolo, CEO, president, and editor-in-chief of WorkCompCentral.com
• Brian J. Connor, partner with the workers’ compensation law firm of Weiss, Wexler and Wornow, PC
• Peggy Crook, vice president of claims and loss control at Federation of Jewish Philanthropies (FOJP) Service Corporation
• Jeffrey R. Fenster, vice president of business development and government affairs at AmTrust Financial Services Inc. and, from 2010 to 2014, the executive director of the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board

In objective style, all the interviews were conducted by Friedlander without advance notice of the questions.

Here’s a sample of what his clients will read – from Chapter One.

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People’s Safety First

Imagine a world where business leaders make safety their top focus. People work without injury. Envision how much more secure people would feel, unleashed from fear, their confidence and self-esteem protected, and their ability to provide for themselves and loved ones safeguarded. People could maximize their productivity and capture the opportunity to make a difference. The organization would thrive.

If only it were that simple. To achieve an injury-free workplace, business leaders must care about safety with unrelenting laser focus.

In reality, many leaders are distracted by the overwhelming daily pressures of running a business. Rather than investing in safer practices and conditions, some treat employees as disposable, placing short-term productivity demands above the needs of people. When a person is injured at work, workers’ compensation premiums increase, as do the costs of training and rehiring, and morale and productivity are damaged.

The solution is for leaders to put people’s safety first. Not only is this the right thing to do, but it consequently improves productivity and optimizes profits.

In 1991, when my company began forming and selling group-discounted workers’ compensation safety groups, we only enrolled organizations with a track record of safety. Their leaders cared about their people and benefited from a true competitive advantage.

In 2006, we broadened our services to help distracted, less safety-oriented employers. “Show me the money,” they insisted. Their primary motivation was achieving their financial objectives. Accordingly, we quantified how much their injuries would cost in terms of additional workers’ compensation premiums, expenses related to solving morale problems, and hiring and training expenses.

To entice them further, we emphasized that their biggest cost was the lost productivity and profits of not having their “A-team” working. If, for example, an organization performs at only 80 percent of its potential due to employee injuries, the 20 percent in lost productivity dwarfs the other costs.

In 2011, I went to the New Orleans Jazz Festival. The music, food, and celebratory energy were wonderful. While I waited for a friend, I browsed the best sellers at the airport’s bookstore. The Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg, caught my attention and ultimately inspired me to write this book.

Mr. Duhigg wrote a fascinating chapter about Paul O’Neill, who, as chairman of Alcoa, created habitual excellence within the organization, starting with safety. “Everyone deserves to leave work as safely as they arrive, right? You shouldn’t be scared that feeding your family is going to kill you. Safety should never be a priority. It should be a precondition. Safety should be like breathing.” Mr. O’Neill’s profound words recalibrated my thinking.

Uniquely in the business world, Mr. O’Neill’s focus on safety was not financially motivated. “In a truly great organization, finance is not an objective; it’s a consequence of excellence,” he said. In my world, those words are as powerful as astronaut Neil Armstrong’s, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Reversing the order of priorities, putting people’s safety before financial objectives, was indeed a giant leap.

Of course, that makes sense intuitively, but to successfully persuade business leaders to put people before financial objectives, I needed evidence, not just theory. Finally, there was objective proof that it was true.

Duhigg writes in The Power of Habit,

O’Neill never promised that his focus on worker safety would increase Alcoa’s profits. However, as his new routines moved through the organization, costs came down, quality went up, and productivity skyrocketed.

Alcoa’s profits would hit a record high. By the time O’Neill retired in 2000, the company’s annual net income was five times larger than before he arrived, and its market capitalization had risen by $27 billion. Someone who invested a million dollars in Alcoa on the day O’Neill was hired would have earned another million dollars in dividends while he headed the company, and the value of their stock would be five times bigger when he left. What’s more, all that growth occurred while Alcoa became one of the safest companies in the world. Before O’Neill’s arrival, almost every Alcoa plant had at least one accident per week. Once his safety plan was implemented, some facilities would go years without a single employee losing a workday due to an accident. The company’s worker injury rate fell to one-twentieth the US average.

 Mr. O’Neill proved that safety is a vital organizational value that generates remarkable growth. The interviews with a broad spectrum of industry leaders that follow are ripe with actionable insights and proven strategies to increase safety.

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This is good communication and deserves the attention it will garner. Nice job, Adam.—SA