Why employees still might consciously choose to take risks? Part 1

In the Kelby Ergo Design Ergo Advantage March 2013 newsletter the title of the feature article was “Safety is #1”:  Why Employees Don’t Believe It”.  In it we covered the most common reasons why employees don’t believe safety truly is a priority for management despite what the fact that management says they do.  There are two additional questions that should be asked and answered that pertain to this topic.  The first question is the title to this blog, “Why employees, even when they know the safety policy, they’ve been properly trained in the policy and even paid attention to it, still might consciously choose to take risks?”  The second question will be revealed in a soon to be published blog.

There can be a variety of factors that influence an employee’s decision process to continue to take risks and/or go against company safety policies despite “knowing better”.  The first reason is primarily due to poor communication from management regarding stated and unwritten/implied safety and production policies.  Do you have employees who ignore safety rules?  If so, what is the number one reason they give for doing so?  Most likely it is something similar to the following:

• “Well, I’m told to ignore those rules.”
• “You (meaning management) want us to ignore those rules.”
• “I’m only supposed to pay attention to them when the compliance person is in the room or perhaps when the company’s safety manager is in the room.”
• “U and our boss (immediate supervisor), we all understand that the rules are for external consumption and we’re supposed to ignore it in order to be ‘more productive’.”

Do any of those statements sound familiar?  It’s similar to someone saying that he heard his boss say “yes” but he really meant “no”.  The culture of the company affects the attitudes and behaviors of the employees.  Perhaps safety was “pushed under the rug” years ago but now management truly does care about employees and expects safety policies to be followed.  Unfortunately the previous culture and employee beliefs and assumptions that safety doesn’t matter will be carried forward for a long time unless and until management visibly commits to safety.  Employees can be loyal to doing the wrong thing (taking risks, ignoring safety) if management sends mixed messages.  Mixed messages can result from having good intentions and good written safety policies and “most of the time” good safety practices which slide when production “just has to get done”.  Messages from management have to be consistent day in, day out as well as the same from the top to the front line supervisor.  Key take away:   Don’t leave it to employees to figure out which message to believe.

In part 2 of this blog we’ll look at a common human factor reason for why employees consciously take risks despite knowing better.