I am sure you have heard the adage that “Safety is everyone’s responsibility.” The reason they say this is not so that everyone should become a safety expert. Rather, it is more like the old adage “many hands make light work.” It takes everyone (doing a little) to create a safety culture that in turn ensures that everyone is safe at work. And this, is why safety is a human resources issue.
I bet you can remember that job you had, where, on the first day they gave you a bunch of paperwork to fill out and then handed you a thick binder of safety stuff and said “read this.” Well, that is not the best way to get you safe, but it does illustrate my point that safety is an HR issue.
In virtually every HR role I have had, I have been as involved in safety as every other aspect of human resources management. I have 1) written safety policies, 2) created safety training material, 3) provided basic safety training, 4) coached employees on safety, 5) included safety in performance management, goal setting and business metrics and 6) even launched safety initiatives. All of this was done in the capacity of an HR Manager not a safety professional.
And the reason why I have done all of this is because “SAFETY” and “HR” are intrinsically linked. They are both included in labour legislation in many jurisdictions. Safety exists side by side with HR. Furthermore, there is increasing overlap in Safety and HR. For example: 1) Harassment and Violence Preventions is both a safety & HR issue, 2) Training is heavily covered in both and finally 3) Safety processes follow a “process improvement” methodology and so does Human Resources Management.