The Florida Chamber of Commerce has always stood up for what’s right for Florida businesses – now we’re unifying Florida’s job creators to make Florida the safest state in America. Committing to a safety culture is more than just following rules and regulations. The worth of a business begins and ends with the safety of its workforce. As Florida’s expert on workplace safety training, education, and research, we help employers develop programs that empower personal accountability for workplace safety.

At the Florida Chamber Safety Council, we know there is safety in numbers. The ability of Florida businesses to survive and thrive depends on cooperation with like-minded leaders.

Workplace safety is more important now than ever. Between 2011 to 2018, Florida ranked 34th in the nation with 1,950 workplace fatalities, and nearly 28% of those fatalities occurred in construction alone. We believe that great safety performance is driven by great leadership at all levels of a company. We know that companies with an authentically low injury and near-miss rate have outstanding leadership, while companies struggling with their safety record are typically ones that have not exhibited the right safety leadership. However, it’s not just about the safety statistics; it’s about avoiding an injury – and the negative and sometimes lifelong impact an injury can have on an employee and their family.

Success starts with leadership’s belief that all injuries are preventable. It’s easy to label injury events and near misses as “accidents,” but that may imply the event was not preventable, and this can divert the focus away from accountability and prevention. Collectively, we have a great deal of control over the circumstances around us by taking the time to properly evaluate and address the direct and latent hazards. As leaders, we know an effective safety curriculum can result in fewer worker injuries and illnesses, lower medical and insurance expenses, reduced workers’ compensation payments, and increased productivity and employee satisfaction.

We collect data right where occupational fatalities and severe injuries occur to help pinpoint the type of events leading to occurrences and what industries have the highest counts and rates. We then conduct safety training through videos on our website and in-person events. We focus our work on influencing and providing additional tools to employers from a safety leadership perspective. The oversight of your employees can directly manifest leadership via observations and coaching or by ensuring that your employees are properly onboarded, trained, have the right tools and equipment, etc.

For example, when we learned that falls from heights were a significant source of fatalities in the construction industry, most often in small-to-medium-sized businesses, we designed introductory safety training videos for employees and supervisors in versions of English and Spanish. The videos aimed at employees focused on what they should ask of their employer, such as how they provide a safe environment and culture for them to work in and the equipment needed to stay safe while on the job. The videos aimed at employers focused more on leadership, measuring safety, and maintaining a safe workplace, including falls protection, training, and providing employees with the proper personal protective equipment (PPE).

We recognize that almost every injury has its roots in failed leadership, which may result from poor supervision or coaching or a lack of understanding of what happens in the field or factory floor. Our newest video series features easy-to-follow safety-focused leadership tips for medium-sized employers. In designing this series, we started with a leadership assessment. We then provided recommendations on major leadership issues, such as assessing safety techniques, onboarding new employees, event investigation, safety communications, and problem-solving. These highly visual, animated videos provide easy-to-digest leadership tools and content in an impactful way. Watch for these videos to launch near the end of 2023.