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ETC Compliance Solutions White Paper on The Hidden Meaning of a Safety Management System Mr. Owner ABC Company 906 North Avenue Somewhere, AZ 85410 Dear Mr. Owner: Mike tells me you are having difficulty deciding whether or not to accept our Safety Management services proposal. I’ve owned my own business of one sort or another for over 30 years. I know how difficult it can be to commit to what seems to be a new level of fixed overhead in order to possibly achieve a return on that expenditure. Based on my years of experience as well as what I believe I understand about your business and its current stage of development, let me offer you the following comments about why you ought to jump on my proposal right now. Excuse me if I’m blunt, but you seem like someone who appreciates an argument that gets to the point. - Your company has been around a while and established a reputation for solid work yet you tell me you are endlessly competing with other medium to small competitors including former employees on a price basis and you are tired of it. You have done work for bigger companies like Intel, Alcoa, BFI, SRP, etc., and I’ll bet you would like to do more. In my experience, these kinds of companies are preferred customers because they are more profitable for you. They are for lots of reasons, they are professional, their purchase orders are larger, they have a clearly stated scope of work that you can accurately bid, they are experienced enough to be interested in more than the lowest bid, they deal with changes fairly, they pay their bills on time, and so on.
- Your company is severely handicapped right now when seeking to do business with Top Tier companies because of the status of your company’s safety management systems and the resulting accident figures. Simply put, you don’t have any safety management systems worthy of the term and your safety record, as demonstrated by your rising workman’s comp insurance E Mod Rate, is an embarrassment.
- Top Tier companies want to do business with other Top Tier companies because they want reliable vendors who won’t hold a job up due to mismanagement or accidents. One revealing method smart companies use to assess how well run another company is, is to review how they manage safety. Please note my point, that how a company manages safety says a lot about how they run the company overall! Your better clients understand this and practice this assessment method of potential vendors constantly. Safety isn’t about safety if you see what I mean.
- The safety guy at these smart companies is not the only one who reviews your safety questionnaire response. The assumption is “if they can’t manage safety right then we’ll assume they are similarly sloppy or unable to manage the rest of their business any better.” I can tell you the “contracted services safety prequalification questionnaire” ALCOA recently asked you to fill out and that Mike shared with me, will be scored very poorly by ALCOA. Mike filled it out as best he could, but your company does not currently have any of the correct answers and ALCOA knows it. We can change this for you.
Mr. Owner, I haven’t spent any time talking about the other more traditional areas of benefit your company would enjoy with a well-managed safety program that is proactively supported by top company management. I’ll list some of then though, and be glad to explain them in more detail face-to-face if you are interested. - Reduced risk to Company Assets
- Your high frequency accident rates suggest a “big one” is likely sooner or later and the Company’s window of exposure to employee injury, OSHA fines, and civil liability is currently high.
- Employee morale will be positively improved and the likelihood is you’ll see quality and productivity improve also. A strong management supported safety management plan is one of the loudest, clearest messages you can send your employees. The reverse is equally true.
- Your insurability will improve.
- Your insurance rates can be reduced over time.
- The many hidden costs of accidents will be reduced.
- You’ll sleep better at night knowing you’ve done the right thing by your employees.
Mr. Owner, I’ve put a square deal in front of you that represents a good value to you and ABC Company. If you want to move up the ladder in your business and reduce your operating costs, I believe you’re going to have to find a way to get on top of your safety management responsibilities one way or another. ETC can do this for you better, for less. I’ve attached my services proposal and I hope you accept it. My Safety Professional and I look forward to working with you and the rest of ABC Company management.
Please call if you’d like to meet and discuss this further or better yet, sign and return the attached contract and we’ll get started.
Sincerely,
// signed // John Benz President
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