Safety Culture Plus

That assumption of most managers in the past is a good place to start. From experience in working in assembly line type work places I remember that most of the managers didn’t really give a rip about safety performance as long as the quota of the day’s production was met. They stood up on Monday mornings and said all the right things about being safe, but the underlying message was production. There was no reflection of the pain and suffering of an injured employee. Safety meetings were really just production pep talks. And employees got hurt. And an employee getting hurt in this line of business was the “cost of doing business”. They didn’t figure in the implication of that cost to the business. Money was just pulled out of the emergency room fund (direct cost) to take care of the injury and the whistle blew again to signal the end of break and go back to work. The indirect cost of that “accident” was never considered as the “cost of doing business”. There was then no management commitment in the safety of the employees. Managers managed the day’s production not the day’s business. And, I believe, that is the difference of the commitment.

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Leadership from the top down is the most important part of any process. "Lip service”, is not going to work for you. If management demonstrates a true commitment (not only when some occurs), provides the motivating force, and the needed resources to manage safety, an effective system can be developed and will be sustained. According to OSHA, this demonstration of leadership should include the following elements that are consistent with an effective program:

• Establishing the program responsibilities of line managers, supervisors, and employees for safety and holding them accountable for carrying out their responsibilities.
• Providing managers, supervisors, and employees with the authority, access to relevant information, training, and resources they need to carry out their responsibilities.
• Identifying at least one manager, supervisor, or employee to receive and respond to reports about safety conditions and, where appropriate, to initiate corrective action.

This is the first time that OSHA has used the term "demonstrate”. In reality, demonstration means “do as I do.” This is an important concept no matter what you are tying to accomplish, always “walk-the-walk, and talk-the-talk”.

Where to start?  This question has come up so often, that I decided to begin a blog series that might offer ideas and thoughts on the topic.    I have been a consultant for…a number of years.  I have had the opportunity to work with great people, interesting people and even strange people, all of whom were trying to work towards improvement of their organizations’s safety program.

As with religion, there’s a long list of ideas and philosophies as to approaches to reaching the promised land of an effective program.  Can we get there?  What map do we need to follow?

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One thing that we often forget and equally if not more important than employee behaviors is management behaviors. If management is trying to create or improve the safety performance, they need to ensure that they demonstrate the same behaviors they expect from their employees. Employees are watching management very carefully during any process change. If management’s personal behavior is not consistent with the verbal and written messages they are sending, then the process will not work, the safety culture will not be trustworthy, and the management system will fail. (more…)