Defining a Value System
Bottom line is if management involves the employees of the company, it makes the employees feel valuable. The employees will feel that they make a difference in the success or even failure of the company. Managers, by now, should or must realize that theory X type management is an old thing and will not fit well at all in today’s working environment. That is a given with production. Now, the same theory has to be applied with the safety system of a company.
I thought it a very profound statement – something that’s even run through my head before, being in the safety business – How can employees come to care about safety as much as the managers do? And it was well explained here – you have to develop a good safety culture. And favorable cultures do not just happen. They are slowly and methodically molded over a period of time.
Defining a value system in a company’s safety standards is very much the first step. Involving the employees, taking away the numbers system, insisting that those employees be individuals, is the most important step. That step sets the culture. And that step must be made by the managers.
