Is Knowing Enough? Compliance vs. Safety

Safety is a result of Compliance.

Many believe that safety is the number one goal, but is knowing how to do things safely enough motivation for people to actually do them? For example, everybody knows the poor effects smoking has on your body. Even drinking is bad for you, yet many people still engage in these activities. Smoking is known to not only affect your health negatively, but it can also poorly affect those around you. Unless cigarettes are no longer available for purchase, people will continue to buy them, despite knowing their life-shortening effects.

With this example in mind, let’s think about compliance and safety. You can teach your employees how to safely do something. They can easily possess the knowledge and training to do things the “right” way, but what motivates them to do it? According to the percentage of people who smoke in the world, compassion for others and long lasting life might not be enough.

This is why there are regulators and fines to enforce safe behavior. It is the top level branches of companies that must DEMAND compliance in order to achieve safety. A regulatory compliance software program must be a requirement, and there have to be punishments for non-compliance or else corners will be cut and safety will be completely out of reach.

The trick is to strive for compliance and catch safety along the way. By implementing a regulatory change management program and enforcing the constant use of a monitored system of compliance, the door to safety can be unlocked.

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