The current recession is no time to cut workplace safety programs according to executives from four companies who spoke recently at a national safety conference.

“Good safety and health programs are good business,” said Robert McGough, CEO of DynMcDermott Petroleum Operations Co. “We do an annual employee satisfaction survey, and 98% feel they can report or stop an unsafe act when it’s about to happen without any retaliation.”

McGough told attendees at the American Society of Safety Engineers’ Safety 2009 conference that as a former military man, he knows “you don’t walk to the head of the mess line and you don’t ask someone to do something you’re not willing to do.”

McGough said he regularly walks up to employees and talks to them about safety and insists that other senior managers do the same.

A defining moment in workplace safety for M&W Zander U.S. Operations President Rick Whitney was when client demands caused the company to “come to the realization we had to be the best in class in safety.” Whitney said his company doesn’t say that safety is a priority because priorities change. Instead, they say safety is a company value, because values are constant.

Does workplace safety keep these senior execs up at night? Not Bob Peixotto, Sr. VP of L.L.Bean. At his company, “safety is well shared,” because it’s not owned by the safety manager — it’s owned by all employees.

And combining LL Bean’s safety program with its wellness program made good sense. Four years ago, 28% of the company’s employees smoked. Today, after smoking cessation programs, that number is down to 4%. Peixotto says instituting twice-a-day, ten-minute stretching periods actually caused productivity to go up, not down.

“We focus on what employees are telling us [about safety],” said Philip Retallick, Sr. VP at CleanHarbors Environmental Services. The company also encourages employees to listen to each other about safety by using Dupont’s Safety Training Observation Program (STOP).