Safe work practice tasks often require extra time effort.
The increased difficulty can result in some team members seeing your safety and health management system (SHMS) as adversarial. A shift in the perception from being an adversary to an advocate will build a strong, safe and resilient workplace. This can be done with four simple steps.
Benchmark the current SHMS perception. This can be done by using an organizational reflection observation. As a leader, mingle on the work floor observing how the frontline employees react to you.
Indicators that your SHMS is considered an advocate are obvious if you, as the leader, experience an “open door” and welcoming reception with a smile and direct eye contact from your employees. They should seem eager to greet you, share information and work behaviors on the floor should not change.
Signs of an adversarial SHMS are if you receive negative nonverbal communication, the conversation is limited or stops all together or if you observe change in work behaviors upon entering the workspace.
Explain OSHA's expectation for the organization to provide a safe work environment. Frame training for safe work practices in a manner that stresses the individual’s importance and emphasizes how adherence to documented organizational safe work practices benefit both the individual and the organization.
The first tier of training completed should encompass regulatory required safe work practices in order to correlate how requirements in the OSHA regulations protect the individual and hold the organization accountable.
The second tier of training should include organizational safe work practices not covered by regulatory requirements. Document safety concerns brought to light by individuals. Investigate those concerns and begin the corrective process for any at-risk conditions, then publicize the corrective solution to all who were affected.
Using this format shifts the learner’s focus to worker protection based on the personal importance of the individual, not just regulatory compliance. Doing so alters the perception of the SHMS from “this makes my job harder,” to “this holds the organization responsible and empowers me to lift up and have unsafe conditions corrected.”
Develop leaders who can “pull” to improve safety rather than “push.” Pulling to improve safety has an informal feel to it, pushing a formal feel. Pulling can be done by interacting with individuals and asking open-ended questions. “Do you have any open safety suggestions you would like to discuss?” “Do you have any suggestions on how we could improve safety in the work environment?” “What was the last task you did a Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) on and are there any improvements that can be made?”
Once answered, investigate the benefits of any suggestions and make value-adding changes. Safety “push” occurs when the SHMS is driven by using only reports that require specific numbers and minimal direct interaction with the front line. An SHMS that grades safety participation and performance by verifying everyone entered the required three safety suggestions and four JHAs per month with no follow up on concerns facilitates resentment. A “pull” SHMS creates the perception that “my experience matters, and I can affect my environment.” A “pushed” SHMS creates the perception, “I don’t matter, only the numbers matter.”
Design the SHMS to be user friendly, with the front line in mind. Train leaders to be approachable and to use the “pull” method to improve organizational safety performance.
If possible, use a single point source for all data entry required by the SHMS. Require a feasibility and value investigation be done on all safety concerns and suggestions.
Publicize the findings that resulted from the investigation and include the changes made that improved the work environment. Be sure to credit the originator of the concern or suggestion if he or she is known and evaluate training often to confirm ease of understanding and effectiveness of learner retention.
Ultimately, employees must perceive that you have created a safety and health management system that is an advocate to improve the workplace, rather than an adversary that complicates their work for your SHMS to be effective.
For more information, visit bit.ly/ MarathonSafety.
