Where does health & safety (organizational) success come from?

I was meeting with a health and safety manager recently who shared that his manufacturing company’s H&S numbers weren’t very good. His supervisor wasn’t happy with the numbers and was given the directive to improve his numbers and rejuvenate the H&S culture of the company.  He went on to say that the safety committee met on a regular basis but the employees didn’t really want to be there.  In short, the company lacked energy and enthusiasm for safety.

 We got to talking about the different ways in which he could improve H&S and meet the expectations of his boss.  He asked what I thought were the keys to H&S success.  I replied by asking if the organization as a whole was successful.  He stated that for the most part it was success and had been in business for several years.  I then asked if he felt everyone, from the CEO of the company down to the bottom rung employee felt engaged and involved in the company’s success.  He paused and thought for a moment and finally stated it didn’t feel to him that everyone was engaged and working for the company’s success.  The conversation continued until we got to the main point I wanted him to see for himself—that the key to the success of any organization or health and safety or ‘fill in the blank’ requires the involvement of everyone at all levels. 

Employees at all levels need to feel and know their opinions are valued.  They need to know that they can truly make a difference and ultimately contribute to the success of the company.  In the case of safety, employees need to be actively encouraged to participate and bring ideas to their manager or safety manager.  They need to not only hear that their ideas have been received but see them evaluated and acted upon.

Since he was the safety committee leader I encouraged him to allow committee members to take the initiative and work with others to get things done. If the member haven’t been taught how to look for and identify risk factors and hazards that he should teach them or invite someone from the outside to do the training.  A fresh voice every now and then may spark new thoughts and ideas on how to improve the work processes to save time and effort besides safety.  The purpose is to entrust them with seeing their way through projects and tasks.  This is critically important to team building and to getting people engaged and wanting to participate. 

 I asked him if he ever felt powerless or hemmed in at any point in his career.  He said he certainly did and the result was that he was miserable at work and couldn’t wait to move on to another job.  So, I asked him to think about his safety committee members.  Do they feel powerless and hemmed in? If they do they will never fully engage, participate or be team players.  They’ve already been excluded from the process.  I stated if this is the case then everyone, including himself, the employees and the company, will suffer one way or another.  

In closing this week’s post, if you’re in a leadership position I’d like to suggest that you stay in more tune and communicate better with the people under you.  Empower and give them the latitude to get things done.  You may be pleasantly surprised to find out how much more gets accomplished.

Your feedback, experiences and comments are most welcome.