Principles of management in security of people and business resources

Object: occupational accident risk prevention management profitability strategy protection people resources.

1. Introduction

The Chilean bibliography is scarce on a realistic and objective vision of the fate of productive activity in terms of the protection of people and resources. Moreover, even if for this concept the profits decrease between% 5 to% 10 or more, which should mean a permanent concern of the businessmen and their management, even in these circumstances there is a Franciscan intellectual poverty of discursive writing on the affair. However, there are those who have been concerned with the problem such as Don Nelson Pizarro Contador, who in several articles has demonstrated the effectiveness of the Integral Management of the Protection of People and Resources.

Concerned that the economy reaches maturity with beneficial effects for all nationals, we believe that it is a duty to study and promote the ideas of the well-known promoter manager of Preventive Culture, proven throughout a brilliant career in the highest direction of the most important Chilean mining companies, with the sole purpose of reaffirming those that, in our opinion, constitute the central pillar or the basis of solid growth, which may in some way give a boost to the national economy starting from the company itself.

2.- the principles of integral management

A.- Comprehensive management and protection of people and resources.

Management must be conceived as a complex activity, in which Comprehensive Management for the Protection of People and Resources must necessarily be included. This concept carries in the best understanding, the notion that the purposes of the company are not only limited to production, or rather to quality production, but to any effect that seeks to maximize the operation of resources and the protection of the people, whose contribution is essential to the goals or total mission of the project. This implies a necessary "managerial effort aimed at fully satisfying the mission of the company."

In a journalistic dialogue, the competitiveness strategist expresses:

“–Apart from the legal obligation of companies regarding prevention, do you understand this activity as a competitive advantage or as a principle of social responsibility?

-To preserve the work aptitude and occupational health of our people has, first of all, a sense of value and respect for people. It is an inescapable ethical mandate and that in many policies of large mining companies appears located within the first statements. From that point of view, we could consider prevention as one of the most basic expressions of the concept of corporate social responsibility. But that is not all. In my view, loss prevention is a management instrument that allows us to ensure the quality of its performance for the company, creating wealth by acting and correcting the basic causes that generate interruptions, setbacks, major deviations in continuity operational, waste and non-conformities in production processes.

Likewise, the lack of prevention exposes us to operational failures that affect the environment, negatively affect the relationship with neighboring communities or seriously damage our credibility with the authorities and public opinion. By applying the loss prevention methodology, one discovers and takes on important areas for improvement in industrial processes, positively impacting productivity and company results. In this way, we transform our business into an attractive activity ”.

B.- Technical-economic approach

The inseparable practice of management and integral management, must be understood from a technical and economic point of view at the same time, since the ideas on the matter are perfectly adjusted to the field and purposes of industrial engineering and is, at the same time, a strategic axis that allows to outline a differentiated model from any other project or business. It is an effective way to take an advantage over other ways of doing things. Said in his own words: “It is a fact that a large part of the managerial activities aim to satisfy the profitability and production commitments contracted with investors, but I am convinced that this cannot be done at the expense of personal or personal hardship. exposing them to risks out of control, which at any time translate into loss of their work aptitude.

It is preferable to learn to prevent through positive stimuli than at the cost of injury or death to the people who help us meet the goals we have set for ourselves ”.

C.- A competitive potential

It comes in two clearly defined visions. The first one considers the concern for occupational health and work aptitude as an "essential value" in corporate culture. The second, in terms of comprehensive management for the protection of people and resources, is a potential for competitiveness.

Every day the competition is tougher. Technique and new forms of work regulate and raise levels of competence, making differentiation more difficult. Then, in the Integral Management of Protection of People and resources, new and vast spaces are opened, which as a general rule have not been appreciated by management levels, but that the occupation of them with the correct orientation will allow the best opportunity to grow and advance business results. There are, therefore, conclusive evaluative and economic reasons, for which it constitutes managerial immaturity not to put this comprehensive management system into practice.

The opinion of the business strategist has a greater scope, insofar as, in his particular vision, the deep commercial sense and corporate benefits and the purposes of the company are not alien to, in terms of making the investment profitable and carrying out the purposes of this, which are strictly to produce profits for their owners. In this sense, the words of the manager of the preventive culture are precise and solid when recording, we repeat: “In my view, loss prevention is a management instrument that allows us to ensure the quality of its“ performance ”for the company, creating wealth by acting and correcting the basic causes that generate interruptions, setbacks, major deviations in operational continuity, waste and non-conformities in production processes ”.

D.- Key factor to protect assets

It is interesting to get to the thinking of Nelson Pizarro Contador through the concept of company assets. The new trends in business management have determined today, what this manager had perceived many years ago, that resources are some and the people involved in the company is a different factor and of a superior nature. It is no longer a question of describing the personnel of a company as mere resources, and at the same time, designating material elements as resources as well. The first are people. The latter are material objects. In this differentiation there is a humanist contribution of proportions. But, likewise, an absolutely correct and precise designation, since the management in the integral management of the protection of these assets, must give a positive response to operational risk,in order to adapt the behavior of the company to the increase in profitability, precisely, making comprehensive protection management a key factor. “By applying the loss prevention methodology, one discovers and takes in important areas for improvement in industrial processes, positively impacting productivity and company results. In this way, we transform our business into an attractive activity. "we transform our business into an attractive activity. "we transform our business into an attractive activity. "

From another point of view, the omission of the correct comprehensive management measures for the protection of people and resources, that is, "the lack of prevention exposes us to operational failures that have an impact on environmental damage, negatively affect the relationship with neighboring communities or seriously damage our credibility with the authorities and public opinion ”. This is reconciled with the perception that the purpose of companies is to make assets profitable. Any other consideration is superfluous and useless against the risk that the owner takes when investing his capital.

E.- Protection of people

One of the pillars of comprehensive protection management is what it says refers to the administration and protection of people and resources. In this matter it is an idea of substantial change in concepts, in which, like everything else On the other hand, the old is discarded, the old way of making security and it is replaced by the integral control of losses. This management instrument causes the development of the people who work in the company, with a net orientation towards the end, objective or reason for being of it, through the development of automation; the work and collaboration of external parties through outsourging.

Concentrating the work of the company on what is its main task and opening up to the market, giving possibilities to other entrepreneurs. The system is developed by giving greater responsibility to the people of the company who manage the assets of the owner with a better vision of their goals, achieving the idea that "the greatest capital of the company is its people".

This is how the Law (20.123) today perceives the economic entity.

Says Pizarro Contador: “The trend observed in recent years in mining companies indicates that they tend to concentrate on their own business activities and outsource functions outside their line of business. With this, the development of regional and national companies in areas such as engineering, services, construction, professional consultancies, production of inputs, energy, food and security, among others, is caused. This is the productive chain that is generated from mining ”.

F.- Participation of the people

The Chilean company has been characterized by its paternalistic management style, overloaded with bureaucracy and inhibiting the prospects of creativity. The change must take place oriented to the participation of the people, so that they give their knowledge and experience in the productive processes. Faced with this need, it is required to learn to communicate what is related to the company's policy, its corporate values, make its essential objectives or its business transparent, extending this concept to the notion of shared work, with a shared vision. The futuristic vision and the projection that managers must give to their people is extremely interesting, since it is required for the long term, eliminating opportunistic immediacy and instead, looking at goals that they wish to achieve within a period of at least twenty-five years.

Once the communication stage is achieved, it is possible to carry out comparative analyzes with other companies, observe the differences, the projects that are needed to achieve the goals.In

this scheme, Pizarro Contador, gives us the idea of responsibility in supervising the work and in the education and conduct of workers. It says: “supervision is responsible for inducing, training and aligning its work team in the philosophy of prevention, in such a way as to ensure at all times a behavior in accordance with the established values, norms and procedures. I dare to affirm that the labor conduct of a worker is the best reflection of the managerial control exercised by the line.

A safe, efficient, productive and environmentally friendly worker means that they have a boss who exercises directive control inspired by the ethics of prevention ”.

It is precisely what we have been trying to make the higher levels understand from the university classroom, without having managed to be heard by those who must attend to the new proposals, even if it is for the fact of submitting them for discussion. In this VIII Region, it is possible to suspect that the management has given up giving a return on the company's resources, especially on people. But, unfortunately, this vice has become an institution even of the public administration, which comparatively speaking, shows serious deficiencies in the Integral Management of People, constituting the most elementary contradiction in terms of value and law, since with it they violate the clear Constitutional Principles set forth in the first article of the Fundamental Charter.

So, cogito, if the State-Administrator does not recognize the fundamental rights of its workers, how can this same body of public law supervise that the private ones recognize them and punish them otherwise?

G.- Maximize the potential net value of economic flows

To do this, it is recommended to carry out "a series of strategic impulses", the results of which must be collected within a specified period. In this field, it should be borne in mind that the owner of the company, its board of directors or its manager will be encouraged to the extent that the result is positive with respect to the value of the final shares of the period. As a general rule, every company, especially in the case of non-renewable goods production companies, invariably tends to increase costs and to difficulties in production, including the most determining factor, the knowledge that said non-renewable goods are finite..

The company can be much more competitive if it reduces its costs or makes them decreasing, which forces them to be prepared for the decrease in the price of the product.

H.- Administration and protection of people

In addition, from what has already been said regarding the internal cleaning of activities that are not strictly those of the business sector, another fundamental strategy is related to the integral management of protection of people and resources. This derives from the understanding of the worker-man as an integral being, that is, with essential needs according to his own essence, located in a family, in a society and in a geographical place, from where he must obtain sufficient means to comply with the proper objective of the human being: the right to be happy, in objective terms, which implies the existence of means and possibilities, not a subjective or romantic appreciation.

The protection of people means valuing and making profitable this asset of the beginning, today, in the concept of the most important specialists, taking into account the experience gained, the knowledge and the skills incorporated into their empirical and practical job training.

The tough international competition has reached the internal spheres of our nation, even more, in compliance with international treaties, it has been introduced in the internal aspects, typical of the sovereignty of the company and in which previously no one could invade. As a consequence of the foregoing, the preventive culture in the direction of the integral protection of people and resources constitutes a country obligation, derived from the Free Trade Agreements themselves and to which companies must comply, if they intend to make use of the benefits that carry.

Once again, we must repeat that the concept of the entire management doctrine of Nelson Pizarro Contador implies a serious concern that is based on the fact, already unquestionable, that production cannot be separated from prevention, as a Preventive Culture, it constitutes a very powerful competitive and economic advantage, especially if it has the objective of becoming a strategic axis of the company's competitiveness.

I.- Paradigm of production first of all

After what has been said, it is understandable for everyone that the concept of producing with the head down and the eyes blindfolded, is a managerial paradigm of magnitude, which must be resolved by the study and concern of new doctrines and thoughts, such as that of Pizarro Contador, in order to give a positive and competitive result response, within the production period. Indeed, many companies and many managers have not set their eyes on the loss and deterioration of important company assets such as people and resources. Disregarding or "lame duck", since all or a large part of what is gained with increased production, is lost or decreased due to direct costs in damage to people and damage to resources. A work accident,not only does it imply immediate loss due to liability in the event of an accident affecting a worker. It can present, and in fact it is, losses of machinery, production, decreased productivity, insecurity of workers, fear in producing and this will last for several days, thereby increasing the overall costs of production.

This Manager, before anyone else in Chile, perceived in practice the truth of this management principle, but unfortunately, even when the benefits of Preventive Culture have been reliably proven, many companies in the fishing, forestry or construction areas, appear with high percentages of accidents, of which only the failure of a Comprehensive Protection Management for People and Resources is responsible, and this only depends on managerial acuity, not on the workers.

J.- Occupational hazards

We take as our own this clear and precise criticism against the lack of Preventive Culture, demonstrated ad nauseam, in this expression, that accidents are "occupational hazards". It is an ordinary and common way of demonstrating the lack of managerial intelligence in implementing Comprehensive Management strategies to protect people and resources, at the same time as a response devoid of all ethical value and that implies a kind of complicity with the most negative factors of production: Labor claims.

The enlightened and notable manager Pizarro Contador asks himself:

“Is there a more perverse and more absurd phrase what? Are occupational hazards? Because in mining, to say occupational hazards means to die silico or die in a landslide or die in an explosion. Occupational hazards: perverse, intrinsically perverse, absurd conception; There are no hazards of the trade, the only thing there is, simply, are managerial errors.

This not only has an empirical logic, but also legal. In effect, article 5 of Law 16,744, which states that the only injuries that do not constitute work accidents are those that are caused by "force majeure" outside of work, or by the intention of the worker himself. In this regard, the Manager himself points out that suicides and sabotage are the only losses that are not attributable to the managers.

K.- Make the assets profitable

One of the essential tasks of managers is to give a higher return on assets. We have expressed it previously, but it is worthy, in homage to its author, to rethink that people are an important part of the assets of companies, in such a way that they must understand that health and work aptitude is a value in itself.

This is basic, but not yet practiced by a large number of companies, which continues to make shareholders and entrepreneurs lose profits at the end of the period, because their managers do not understand this truth sung by experience and by facts.

So, the control of losses and the profitability of the assets, is not only a look of a company of social responsibility, but, at the same time, it is a real and concrete business.

To get an idea of what the lack of Integral Management for the protection of People and Resources means for investors, let's read what the Manager himself teaches us:

“In ongoing processes, the level of losses, waste and reprocesses that" normally "occur due to deviations from pre-established standards are between 5% and 10% of operating budgets; I would even dare to say that this is a conservative range in the estimation of losses ”.

These expressions constitute a strong call of attention to the management levels that do not deal with the matter, which should also concern the shareholders, boards of directors and owners of economic entities.

L.- Role of the supervisor

The role of the supervisor is therefore the main role in this matter. The paradigm is that it is still estimated by some managers that Integral Management does not have greater importance in production. In this regard, I remember that on one occasion, invited by an administrator to a conference on the responsibility of employers in workplace accidents, I attended, not without some concern, in my capacity as a lawyer and not as an engineer or prevention expert. Once, the presentation was made by the manager of said company, he approached me and said quietly - Professor, I beg you to excuse me, but I must withdraw because I must do an important task - Undoubtedly, that manager knew everything about it, well If that were not so, her bad example would have doomed the conference before she began.The lack of leadership in the area of Preventive Culture is another matter that must be imputed to many managers.

The Integral Management, is simply intended to avoid Damage, waste, losses, setbacks and production reprocesses, and this is a task of exclusive managerial responsibility.

LL.- Production and safety, one thing

In this order of ideas, it is not the place or the time to accept expressions from the Construction or Work Director when he expresses: “I am here to produce; They pay me to produce… you collect the dead ”.

In saying this, Pizarro Contador criticizes the lack of basic knowledge of what the company is about, since that phrase reveals an extreme individualistic position, both in the sense of the professional who works and in relation to their work, as well as the lack of knowledge of this as production is a unit integrated by production itself and by the protection of people and resources. Perhaps, which has led the country to lose amounts each year that oscillate in% 4 of GDP.

M.- Vision of the managers

In this matter, well, as in all those that we have reviewed and pointed out as true principles for our companies or ideas born from the exercise and management practice of one of the most brilliant executives in mining, such as Mr. Pizarro Contador, with much authority, has delivered his concept of what the manager is, and says: “For the general management, together with the highest hierarchy of the organization, you have to declare publicly and in writing your commitment to a policy of administration and protection of people and resources. To the extent that the administration of people and resources depends on the highest level and the highest level of public faith that believes in them, because he considers his people because he cares about their physical integrity,but basically also because you are interested in making the owner's assets profitable, only then is a credible message being sent to the entire organization. Then it is necessary to translate the commitment into action plans "

Corroborating the above, he adds as a corollary:

"We managers cannot blame people for the losses that occur in our companies."

Except in the case of suicide or in the event of sabotage, the rest of the losses, the rest of the incidents, are the product of a managerial fault, because the incidents follow a causal model ”.

N.- Managerial leadership

We already said it in the manual of occupational accidents and employer responsibility, entitled "RISK PREVENTION: A NEW CULTURE", of my authorship, that the manager must be a leader in the sense of being able to establish strategies and achieve that all the staff understand them and follow them as one man and in one direction. We emphasized that the leader should be able to break the old habits that conditional on people and give them the tools of a new way of doing things, avoiding accidents and giving the importance that people require as important assets of the company.

The importance of leadership has to do with the credibility of the company. It is the one that signals to public opinion and to the State and its auditors that this company is interested in the protection of people, in consequence the workers acquire confidence and work without fear and at the same time, the owners or shareholders, see in prevention of resource losses a source of profit.

3.-Conclusion

The conclusion is an abundance, after studying the thought of Mr. Pizarro Contador. However, I believe that, disagreeing to some extent with this distinguished Manager, that the greatest contribution of his doctrine is oriented to a humanistic and social result, since the mere sign of Protection of People, constitutes a parenthesis in managerial disregard for the fate of the workers, or at least it is a result of extraordinary importance that derives from the theoretical-practical conception that Integral Management for the Protection of People and Resources, is today the strategic axis of competitiveness. We must remember that we have always expressed the opinion that the protection of workers or “our people” is a task that matters to the State, the Company, the workers themselves, but also society,always interested in the welfare of people and their families.