For the year 2005, OSHA will be focusing on increasing participation in Voluntary Protection Programs and aiming to boost safe driving among workers, said OSHA chief John Henshaw at the Safety Congress & Expo in New Orleans.

Henshaw highlighted the successes of OSHA's Voluntary Protection Program (VPP). He said though 1,149 companies are already participating, the agency's goal is 8,000.

In addition, he said there will be an increased emphasis on safe driving for workers. OSHA will concentrate efforts on the federal government fleet, which is the biggest motor vehicle fleet in the country. Half of all government workplace fatalities are caused by vehicle accidents. He said that if seat belt use increased by 1 percent in the motor vehicle fleet, it would save 250 lives and $800 million.

John Howard, director of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, discussed several safety issues that his agency plans to focus on in the coming year and beyond:

• Address the safety-related needs of the growing population of workers that do not work in the traditional workplace due to contracting and outsourcing. Over 25 percent of the nation's workers are nontraditional workers.
• Explore the incidence of illnesses and injuries tied to causes related to work hours and scheduling.
• Address increasing immigrant worker needs, especially overcoming language and cultural barriers to the development of a workplace safety culture.
• Address the challenges of the quick spread of infectious diseases. He stated that the SARS threat last year cost businesses and governments worldwide over $60 billion.
• Multinational safety issues that affect trade and businesses operating in many countries, especially language and cultural barriers in the workplace.
• Identify and address emerging safety issues related to nanotechnology, such as dispersion of toxins, assessing workplace hazard risks, and personal protective equipment.

Howard stressed the need for safety managers to develop a business case for safety and health; they must make their case in the language of corporate financial managers.

-- David Galt

Tuesday at Safety Congress & Expo

By afternoon Tuesday, the National Safety Council had halted the 92nd Annual Congress & Expo as Hurricane Ivan approached the Gulf Coast. Some educational sessions were held in the morning, however. Here are reports on improving your use of PowerPoint presentations in training and boosting safety, health, and productivity.

Getting the Most out of Your PowerPoint Session

PowerPoint can be a useful tool in helping you get your safety message across, but "PowerPoint won't do your training for you," warns Bruce Thompson, presenter of the How to get the Most out of Your PowerPoint Presentation.

Thompson gave many helpful tips for preparing a session and keeping it focused and interesting for the audience. Among them, he gave "Nine Steps of Instruction:"

1. Gain the attention of your audience.
2. Describe the goals of your training session.
3. Stimulate recall of prior knowledge.
4. Present your materials.
5. Provide guidance for learning.
6. Elicit performance practice.
7. Provide feedback.
8. Assess performance.
9. Enhance retention.

Thompson encouraged getting the audience involved throughout your presentation by asking for questions, letting audience members solve problems, and by giving rewards for active participation.

When creating your own PowerPoint presentations, remember these tips:

• Don't read slide text.
  
• Keep your slides to a maximum of six lines.
  
• Keep each slide up for no more than three minutes.
  
• Use 28 point font size for text.
  
• Use color, sound, and animation for variety.
  
• Use a remote so you can walk around the room freely.
  
• Keep it simple.

-- Peggy Cretella

Improving Safety, Health, and Productivity Programs

Employers can use comprehensive disease management and wellness programs for improving employee safety, health, and productivity, according to International Truck & Engine Corporation (ITEC) representatives presenting at the 92nd Annual Safety Congress & Expo in New Orleans.

The company has developed a safety, health, and productivity strategy for serving its 14,000 employees on the job and off the job and 50,000 retirees and surviving spouses. Three major sources of concern at the company are cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal disorders, and allergies, which the company discovered contributed significantly to reduced productivity.

For International Truck & Engine Corporation, the strategy has been an evolutionary one. The company set goals and developed metrics for the different factors. The strategy began in the mid 1990s, when the company began to focus on improving its absence rate, which at one time was 2 times those of other manufactures, according to Dan Pikelny, director of health and productivity at the company. At first, the company focused on reducing the number of OSHA recordable injuries.

In 1997, the company developed a workers' compensation metric, says Pikelny. The company's program included physician audits and aggressive return-to-work efforts.

In 1998, the company developed its health and productivity management philosophy and started its health promotion program. For the wellness program, the company measures success by the level of participation. The company uses competition as one way to increase participation, according to Anita Holloway, manager of clinical programs and health services.

In 2000, the company had identified controllable absences-such as an employee who calls in sick--as a key metric. By 2001, the company had set and met its goals for absenteeism.

Within the last few years, the company developed a human capital management model as it pushes to improve productivity within the company. The company's program has two key strategies: health-risk management and total employee productivity.

Holloway said that programs should be targeted and that one size doesn't fit all. At ITEC, the company targets programs to three groups: primary (healthy workers), secondary (at-risk workers), and tertiary (workers with diseases).

-- Sean Dean