Generally started as a result of reactivity (as opposed to proactivity), organizations let safety go unchecked until the drastic happens.
An inspection, an injury, or any other form of unexpected tragedy leaves organizations scrambling to take action by throwing money at the issue without considering how it affects the workers. The workers, who walk on to the job one day to find that everything has changed, are much less likely to ramp up to the changes, balking the extreme shift that has occurred.
Dramatic overnight changes do not work.
By developing a proactive strategy that focuses on the behaviors, drivers, and communication objectives, you can develop a long lasting safety culture that will protect employees while driving productivity and profitability.
EHS Today recently released a short guide to developing a people focused safety culture that will be effective, manageable, and most importantly, protect your employees.
- Evaluating the Challenge: Know where you stand as a culture, seek feedback from employees anonymously, and demonstrate that you care about the employees and their views about making the organization safer.
- Create and Measure Your Plan: Start at the top and systematically plan out objectives and initiatives to ensure a measureable approach. Haphazardly throwing together a safety plan will end in one small obstacle derailing the entire process.
- Build Trust and Solicit Commitment: You’ve made the plan and begun the process, but the final feature in your people focused plan is building trust among employees and management. Solicit more feedback from employees to gauge effectiveness. Trust and sustainability will only occur when both sides feel respect and understanding from the other.
For the full article, including questions you must ask in planning and implementing a people focused safety program, see the EHS Today Article “Safety Culture—It’s All About People.”
Optimum Safety Management is committed to helping your organization improve productivity and productivity through safety. Our five category, thirty step evaluation process will help you to recognize gaps in your safety program and take measureable, actionable, and people focused steps to develop a successful program that allows your organization to exceed compliance.
Learn more about our proprietary Safety Snapshot™ tool, and get a consultation by filling out this form or calling our safety helpline at 888-70-Safety (888-707-2338).
