Dave Phillips, Safety & Compliance Manager
Hi there! I am Safety Dave, and in my years working in safety, I've learned that the most effective safety lessons often come from stories of near-misses, successes, and the small changes that make a big difference. My goal for this column is to share those with you, offering practical advice that moves beyond compliance to create a truly safe environment.
According to recent industry data, more than 394,000 full-time workers are sidelined annually due to preventable injuries. That is not just a statistic; it is a massive, solvable loss of talent and productivity. While we chase efficiency in a fast-paced environment, it is easy for 'just this once' to become a bad habit. This column is dedicated to breaking that cycle. We will examine how a proactive, 'SAFETY FIRST' mindset can drive better performance, stronger morale, and a more robust bottom line. 
Wait, the bottom line can be affected by safety and return a larger margin? You bet it can! How is that possible? Let me tell you: Take, for example, an employee gets burned at work by a hot press. The average cost of the injury is $63,119. Now, there are two categories of cost: direct and indirect. Insurance covers the direct cost like medical expenses and lost wages. The indirect costs are hiring a replacement and training them, plus productivity is lower because of the skill level of this new employee. There might also be OSHA penalties to pay for serious safety violations. Standard fines start at $14,000 to more than $160,000 for multiple violations. If this employee loses their life because of the burns, those costs often exceed $1.4 million dollars. Safety isn't just about avoiding accidents; it's about building a team culture where watching out for each other is second nature. One way to build a safety culture is by using the 3 C's of safety.
Compliance: It is a culture that refers to shared values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that promote regulatory adherence, proactive risk management, and ethical practices within an organization, basically following all safety regulations and standards. Do you always wear your personal protective equipment, even when no one is watching you?
Competence: It ensures that all employees have the collective knowledge, skills, and attitudes that enable an organization to prioritize safety by holding people accountable for safety behaviors, and avoid punitive measures for honest mistakes, focusing instead on learning from safety-related incidents. I remember one time when I had just started in a new facility where they welded many components together. I looked past incidents, first aid injuries, and found that many burns had been reported, with some severe burns. My first mission was to investigate why it was happening and do my best to mitigate it. I found that the welding team members were using the wrong type of gloves for the given welding being done. I reached out to my PPE suppliers to have them bring in suitable welding gloves, trialed them, and then changed the PPE requirements, reducing the number of burns by more than 85%.
Commitment: This is demonstrating a strong, shared dedication to safety from management and every team member. Leaders must model safe behaviors, such as wearing proper PPE in all areas of operations, and regularly conduct site visits and walk-throughs to engage team members in safety, rather than just reviewing reports on safety-related events.
In my previous position as a safety manager over multiple sites, it was easy to see which leadership team was actively engaged in safety with their teams, because those sites had the least number of work-related injuries, sometimes no injuries for months on end.
Safety is no longer a checklist - it's the silent pulse of a high-performing team.
In 2026, maintaining a truly safe environment requires moving beyond compliance to a culture where safety is embedded in every decision. Think of the one person who expects you to walk through your front door tonight. That's why we're here.
Safety isn't just about avoiding statistics; it's about the people who depend on us. I challenge each of you to look at the things you do around the house. Do I need to wear any PPE to keep myself and my family safe? Stay safe, my friends, until we meet again.
