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Paul O’Neill, former CEO of Alcoa, Placed Emphasis on Worker Safety over Company Profits
How his Shareholders Reacted and What Happened to Company Growth Might Surprise You
In 1987, Paul O’Neill assumed the position of CEO at the Aluminum Company of America, more succinctly referred to as Alcoa. At the first board meeting, he announced his primary goal: getting worker safety down to zero, and thousands of shareholders nearly had a heart attack. Many investors and board members pleaded with him to revise the new company objective because at the time, Alcoa was already amongst the safest manufacturing companies in America.
The year O’Neill became the comany’s new CEO, five out of 100 American workers were forced to miss at least one day a year due to a work-related injury. At Alcoa, it was 1.86 out of 100, which already placed it in the top third for worker safety when compared to other American industries. Despite the outcry from top executives, he stayed firm to his mission statement.
O’Neill believed that if you prioritized workers above all else, then company productivity and profits would follow in accordance. Alcoa employs thousands of workers and has factories located in four continents, but each had a different method of operations. O’Neill visited them all, stressing worker safety to all the supervisors at every manufacturing…
