How Does Safety Stack Up ? A survey of corporate financial

SH&E PROFESSIONALS have a vested interest in knowing more about top-level management—most of whom determine what resources are designated for safety within organizations. By knowing more about these managers’ perceptions of safety, an SH&E professional may be better equipped to negotiate for valued resources. For example, suppose you know that top-level managers within your industry think that good safety performance is primarily the result of industry-level enforcement of high safety standards or perhaps the result of proactive safety programs. Would such information help you prepare a more persuasive argument for funding safety programs or personnel? This article aims to review top-level managers’ perceptions of their companies’ safety performance, programs and personnel in an effort to give safety professionals a competitive edge in resource negotiation. The article also explores the reasoning behind these perceptions in order to help identify best practices or potential strategies for improving occupational safety.