Who Are Your Safety Leaders?

It’s hard to read anything about the safety industry without coming upon the term “safety culture.”  But what does that really mean?  Simply put, a safety culture is nothing more than the attitude, beliefs, perceptions and values that employees share in relation to safety in the workplace.  In other words to coin a well-used phrase “it’s the way we do things around here."

Every company has one, some are great, some are good, some just so so and frankly some are pretty poor.  Let’s assume we all want one that is great.  So how do you develop it?

There have been hundreds of books written on the subject with a ton of advice on how to create one but not many that we’ve seen that discuss using your own safety leaders to help build your own.  It’s not a new approach, “it’s called transformational leadership” and it aims to instill your team with a compelling new vision where employees work toward a unified purpose…namely safe work performance.

This approach uses something call “idealized influence” which is nothing more than finding the leaders in your company who behave in ways that result in their being role models for the safe performance in your workplace.  Every company has them; you can list them on your fingertips. They are the ones who are admired, respected and trusted by their fellow workers.

A study by the Center for Construction Research and Training suggests that the most important variable when aiming to increase safety outcomes is “idealized influence.” What this ultimately means is that rather than relying solely on incentive programs or traditional training methods, if you’re not encouraging workers to lead by example you’re missing out on a powerful opportunity.

You might want to consider using this research, and here are four ways to do it:  

1. Identify the leaders within your organization who are admired for their personal character, intelligence or skills.  Think out of the box; don’t just use the traditional leaders like managers, foremen, and supervisors. For example, who are the people on your team who consistently stand out for delivering exceptional work and who are well-liked by their coworkers?

2. Recruit the leaders to your cause and tell them they have the power to create positive change! Everyone loves to be told that they are a valuable team member with the ability to make a difference. You can use them in a mentoring program, as a “safety squad”, as training facilitators or in a variety of other initiatives or educational sessions

3. Visibly support your leaders commending the safe behavior that your leaders are role modeling, rewarding open communications about safety concerns and remembering the power of a simple, well-deserved and timely compliment. 

4. Involve them in your safety award efforts by letting them recommend and issue behavior safety awards and at times reward them as well for their performance in helping to grow your safety culture.

For more information on AwardSafety products or services or other white papers please contact us at awardsafetyinfo@cox.net