Convincing Employees of New Safety Culture/Program: Part 2

In part 1, I started to answer the question received about what can be done to convince employees that the new safety program is truly valued at a company.  In part 2, I will share suggestions on what you need to do in order for you to lead safety.

1.      Do fewer things better. If you put in a search engine, “best practices for safety management systems” you will end up with thousands and thousands of ideas that you can invest time, effort, and dollars into making your company safe—however, you can’t do them all. Focus on the initiatives and processes that you believe, once adopted by your company will create real value — and that you believe you can actually accomplish and embed into the work flow. Prioritize those initiatives by both the size of the impact and relative ease of execution. Put a time limit on execution and allocate the resource level it will take to succeed in that timeframe. And clearly communicate the value of adoption to your employees.

2.      Plan and budget for Day 2 (adoption) from the start. Plan for what it will take to realize the benefits beyond the “safety team’s” efforts. Take into account the people, process and structural changes. Budget for the communication, training and organizational development required to succeed. And ensure that proper governance and metrics are in place to monitor progress.

3.      Lead by example. You can influence the transition to new safety ways of working by walking the talk.  Be the change you want to see happen – and by encouraging your colleagues to do so. Only when senior leaders became engaged in safety will your employee ‘community’ become engaged.  Keep in mind, with executive engagement you personally don’t have to mandate activity, he or she does.

4.      Engage true advocates. Draw on influential employees in the front line—it’s one of the most, if not the most effective vehicles for promoting change in an organization. Identify your committed safety champions early – individuals who network well and can create horizontal influence to help implement behavior change across silos. Devise a program to nurture your safety champions, as they are key to transformation success and will most likely be your organization’s future safety leaders.

5.      Align rewards and recognition. Transformation goals and measures are inextricably linked. Use all available reward structures to foster adoption, not just financial ones. And consider other forms of employee engagement, such as games, “just do it” ideas, which can also yield positive results.

Remember, creating an organization that values safety is not just about implementing new practices and policies. If you want to see true and lasting value from your safety investments, people need to change their mindsets and behaviors, and you need to lead that change.