This is a Department of Labor blog  post, authored by Deborah Hersman, CEO and president of the National Safety Council.  In this post, Deborah presents an online campaign, Journey to Safety Excellence, which can be accessed through the National Safety Council  website.  With promotional support from OSHA,  this campaign provides organizations and individual employees with safety resources which include Journey Tools, Journey Guides, Safety Talk and Journey News.

People are an employer’s most important asset. Sadly, in recent years, nearly 11 workers died on the job each day, and 5 million were injured annually. Even more difficult to bear are the estimates that 50,000 people die and another 400,000 are sickened each year because of illnesses contracted in the workplace. These numbers are unacceptable to all of us, because as a nation we no longer accept the premise that injuries and fatalities are just part of the cost of doing business.

Safe companies have better financial results, they attract better workers and keep them for longer periods of time. These organizations know that a positive safety culture can boost employee morale, increase productivity and lower costs.

The National Safety Council, believes every employer can benefit from investing in safety, and with promotional support from OSHA, we have launched the Journey to Safety Excellence campaign.  The largest advocacy effort of its kind, this online campaign serves as a roadmap to help organizations and even individual employees – from the new safety leader to the seasoned professional – keep workers free from harm. Simply put, the Journey to Safety Excellence is a way to work on continuously improving – the best organizations never accept “good” as “good enough.”

Accessing the Journey to Safety Excellence through the NSC website will provide you with:

• Journey Tools: Benchmark your safety performance against other companies. Get help measuring baselines, identifying and prioritizing areas for improvement, setting realistic goals and monitoring your progress.
• Journey Guides: Explore safety and health topics at your own pace with our Journey to Safety Excellence guides. Gain instant access to a collection of webinars, best practices, training resources and more.
• Safety Talk: Join the conversation on workplace safety to become a part of the solution. Connect with others just like you, pose questions, share practices and learn from the experts.
• Journey News: Stay up-to-date on the latest trends in safety and find out if a safety event is coming to a town near you.

Think of the Journey, and all of the free, practical tools collected from the Council’s 100 years of experience, as your adjunct safety team – your partner – because every worker should go home each day in the same condition as they arrived.

Deborah Hersman is the CEO and president of the National Safety Council.