Safety 'stamp of approval' - on companies!

You know the CSA symbol on your toaster... well, what about a stamp of approval for employers who demonstrate that  they are "safety champions"?

Sound crazy? I don't think so, and the idea came from a great source: one of the high school students I speak to each year. He stepped up to the mike at the end of my presentation and asked:

"Mr. Ellis, how do we know which companies we should work for; is there some kind of stamp of approval out there for health and safety?"

(Sometimes I am more impressed with the progressive thinking of teens who have not yet been impacted by the political makeup of an adult world.

Health and safety systems: formalize the processes

I don't think the "CSA"-like stamp of approval on companies is untenable. There certainly are enough safety organizations globally to create a symbol recognizable to workers in every sector of the economy.

And it isn't a far cry from the kind of work being done at companies like Hydro One, The Woodbridge Group and Drake International (in its new "DrakeSafe" initiative) to create formal health and safety systems - the way that HR and financial systems exist for companies to follow.

The challenge: come up with a powerful safety symbol to designate for employers

Who is going to lead the crusade for a formal 'stamp of approval' for companies?

Some suggestions:

• How about a circle with the letters O T in the middle? O = Orientation and T = Training: two fundamentals for workplace safety that I repeat to thousands of young workers each year.
• Or the safety symbol could be a big, fat Zero - as in the "Road to Zero" message of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) of Ontario - symbolized, maybe, the hand signal commonly recognized as "A-OK." (see photo here.)

Oh, and speaking of great ideas and questions from the mouths of teens... a Grade 11 student asked me the other day, "what is the business case for health and safety?" (no, really!!)

Who wouldn't want a young person like that working for you?!