The need for an industry-wide safety database arose from a discussion with individuals at the Worker Safety Roundtable, hosted by the National Pork board in November of 2007. Participants in the Worker Safety Roundtable were discussing ways to decrease injuries and fatalities across the pork industry. It became apparent that many pork producers were only implementing safety initiatives after an injury or fatality occurred. An online database where all pork producers could report injuries and fatalities anonymously was suggested. Database users would be able to see the types of safety initiatives occurring across the industry. This information would allow database users to proactively address safety issues at pork production facilities, without waiting for incidents to occur.
The National Pork Board, QCI (a technology-based consulting firm), and the Organizational Effectiveness Research Group (OERG) at Minnesota State University, have created this database.
Data was collected from the individuals at the Worker Safety Roundtable in order to create the content of the database. Using the information collected during the focus group, surveys centered on safety practices and accident information were developed. The Workplace Safety database is a tool for collecting and communicating safety issues across the pork industry. The goal of this database is to identify safety trends within the pork industry, so that pork producers can more effectively reduce the amount of injuries occurring on farms. The ability of this database to prevent injuries within the pork industry is contingent upon the amount of information that is reported by database users.
