Every year, The National Safety Council publishes a cover story on CEOs who “get” safety.

The CEOs profiled in this article understand that building a safety culture in their organization starts with them – the choices they make, where they focus their efforts, and the expectations they set for others.  This top-down approach is highly effective for creating a safer work environment for employees. The “CEOs Who Get It” also put safety before profits – although, that isn’t to say, increased safety won’t improve a company’s bottom-line – because it often does!

During a recent NSC Congress and Expo, attendees were surveyed to identify significant safety challenges. By a wide margin, the survey participants said the biggest challenge faced in promoting a safety culture was leadership commitment and engaging employees (62 percent). Reducing risk (18 percent), safety management systems (11 percent), and measuring performance (9 percent) were chosen as the main challenge in promoting a safety culture significantly less.