Re:French executives convicted in the suicides of 35 of thei...
by graeme on Sunday December 22, 2019 @08:08AM
(#21856938)
Sounds like you're thinking of Paul O'Neill and Alcoa. He figured out that worker safety was a proxy for a whole bunch of other metrics at Alcoa.
He had everyone focus intensely on safety. Worker accidents went down massively. As a byproduct, costs went down and productivity went up.
Any serious incident has to be reported up, was investigated, and was treated very seriously.
Note that while this likely generalizes to other places, it doesn't necessarily generalize to every place. I could conceive of some setups where safety and profits were opposed. But in Alcoa's case, O'Neill was able to use safety as a driver for other changes.
He had everyone focus intensely on safety. Worker accidents went down massively. As a byproduct, costs went down and productivity went up.
Any serious incident has to be reported up, was investigated, and was treated very seriously.
Note that while this likely generalizes to other places, it doesn't necessarily generalize to every place. I could conceive of some setups where safety and profits were opposed. But in Alcoa's case, O'Neill was able to use safety as a driver for other changes.