The 80/20 rule—also known as the Pareto principle—is a common axiom of business management. Named after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, it states that in many cases 20% of causes lead to 80% of effects.

What does a business management and economic principle have to do with workplace safety? A lot, according to Tim Page-Bottorff.

In the past few years, Tim has spoken with thousands of safety professionals, and if there’s one common theme he’s noticed it’s that safety folks are really, really busy. As he notes in a recent article for BLR, this means that EHS managers have a lot to gain by applying the 80/20 rule to their work. Tim says:

One of the things I like to encourage safety professionals to do is to set aside half an hour a month to consider the Pareto Principle… When most people take some time to consider it, they quickly realize that the time they spend trying to enforce better compliance with regulations isn’t going to lead to dramatic improvements in results.

In fact, what’s currently happening with most safety pros is the flip side of the Pareto Principle: they’re getting the last 20% of gains and it’s taking 80% of their effort—or at least it feels like it.

If this describes your current situation, Tim suggests taking a different approach or expanding the set of tools in your safety toolbox.

To that end, he notes possible avenues to start getting more benefits with less effort. Most notably, he argues that it’s worth it to take a closer look at solutions that focus on awareness and human error, rather than on compliance.

Tim is an expert on getting more from safety, and if you enjoy his article then you’ll likely find his other work worthwhile, including his presentation on using humor to improve safety training and his article on how to approach classroom training with an eye on efficiency and engagement.