The Absence of Accidents or the Presence of Safety?

For a little levity, take a look at this short clip about a safety pizza party brought to you by Madtv.  https://youtu.be/rK8UIGkzsf8

It’s fun to watch for those of us who have been involved with safety incentives for years.  But it does bring up a point we have been preaching for a long time.  A great safety culture is not about the absence of accidents, it’s about the presence of safety. 

In over 30 years of implementing safety incentive systems, we’ve seen hundreds of safety incentives just like the one you saw in the skit.  Regardless of OSHA coming down hard on safety incentives based on lagging indicators that do nothing to foster safe behavior, $$ millions are spent each year on safety awards that do just that.

An example in the extreme that too poignantly magnifies this problem is the April 20, 2010 disaster that occurred on the BP Horizon oil rig where 11 men died from one of the worst safety disasters in history.  Prior to the accident, this rig had a perfect safety record for seven years running! Did you know that after analysis of the accident it was reported that over 400 maintenance items had not been corrected, and two of them could have given the workers more time to leave the rig and may have prevented some of the deaths?

Having signs that count the number of days without an accident, and dinners or pizza parties or tee shirts may be great ways to communicate the need for safety and even to thank your workers for being safe, and they are perfectly legitimate ways to foster a safe environment.  But they don’t change behavior? Or merely promote the absence of accidents?

If you want real behavior change you need to continuously observe and recognize safe performance.  Only then will that performance turn into a safe habit.

Improving Safety Attitudes

Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck, in decades of research on achievement and success, showed your attitude is a better predictor of your success than your IQ.  She found that people’s core attitudes fall into two categories; fixed mindset or growth mindset.  With a fixed mindset you believe you are who you are and cannot change.  With a growth mindset you believe you believe you can improve with effort.

We believe that almost all workers have a growth mindset when it comes to safety and believe that they can improve in that effort.  Can then attitude be taught?  Can you change attitudes?  Can you improve attitudes? Of course, it all starts with communications. Here is an article on communications within safety awards efforts that might be of interest. 

Once you have developed and implemented a communications plan, here are some other steps you might want to consider to build a positive safety attitude in your organization:

·       Utilize different methods of communications with regular updates on safety performance

·       Encourage safety suggestions that continuously and consistently drive the number, quality and implementation of suggestions.

·       Consider small rewards to employees who bring hazardous conditions to your attention and assist in correcting them

·       As safety training is paramount, consider closing the behavioral loop by measuring the effectiveness of your training and rewarding employees for improved performance based on that training.

·       Along with recognizing employees for ongoing safe behavior, use small tangible awards for maintaining safe behaviors and eliminating unsafe behaviors. 

·       Get your management involved. This may seem straightforward but it’s often the most difficult to do.  Give them something to do and keep them in front of the employees often to show support. 

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