ByBrett Haskins, CSP
Empowering front-lineworkers - those
who stand tobenefit themost from an
effective safety process - is a concept that
has been talked aboutmuchover the last
decade, yetmany organisations that start
the journey seem to stopabruptly.
Regardless of the reason for derailment,
a failed attempt canhavea lasting
negative impact on safety culture.
Understandinghow to successfully
engage and empower yourworkforce is
key to ensuring your organisation can start
and continue the journey toward safety
culture excellence.
IdentifyingCultural Influences
Stated simply, safety culture is how
youdo things. Culture includes the
norms, attitudes, beliefs and ideas of
yourworkforce. Understanding these
beliefs andperceptions is the first step in
identifying the areas inwhich you should
focus the improvement efforts.
Imagine, for example, there is an injury
at yourworkplace. The injuredworker
performed an at-riskbehavior that
resulted in the injury. As amatter of fact,
about 90%of all injuries are related toat-
riskbehaviors.Why is this?Why dopeople
take safety risks? It is because something
has createdor influenced an attitude,
belief or idea the actwill not result in
injury or something else ismore important.
These influences canbedefined as the
‘norms’ of the culture and include, but
arenot limited to: pressures toproduce
more, tobemoreefficient, to save time,
company values andmanagement systems,
past experiences that didnot result
in injury and a lackof risk awareness.
Addressing these influences is a largepart
ofwhat safety culture improvement is
about, and success requires involving all
the right people in thebuildingprocess.
Involving the Front-LineWorkforce
Unfortunately, thosemost commonly
chargedwithdevelopingandwriting
standardworkprocedures and safety
policies/procedures areengineers and
safety professionals,many ofwhomhave
never performed the specific tasks for
which they arewritingprocedures. Further,
their experiencewith the requirements of
suchdocuments is limited to regulatory
text or incident investigations. The
point is very seldomdowe engage the
peopleperforming theactual work in the
Empower change drivers: Strategies for engaging
employees in safety culture improvement
creation anddocumentationof thework
requirements. Failure todo so can create
gaps in thoseprocedures, andwhen those
gaps alignwith influences, asmentioned
earlier, the riskof injury ismore likely.
Engineers and safety professionals have
important roles toplay in theworkplace,
but it is critical employeeswhoperform
theday-to-day front-line activities be
involved indevelopingprocedural
documents, within theboundaries set by
themanagement team and regulations.
Additionally, involving the front-line
workforcegives these employees a sense
of ownership thatwill result ingreater
compliance andhonest assessment about
whether the system trulyworks.
Themost successful organisations
employ this employeeengagement
techniquenot only indeveloping
improvements to current safety policies
andprocedures, but also in error-proofing
existing safety processes. Employees
volunteer toparticipateon teams that
create improved safety accountabilities
around theseprocesses, focusingon
the things leaders can control. Such
accountabilitiesmust be connected
through all employee levels of the
organisationandmust be flexible enough
tobe applied effectively in eachwork
groupor team. These accountabilities
thenbecome their own leadingmetrics.
Engaging the front-lineworkforce in
determiningwhat ahighquality pre-shift
safetymeeting looks like, in identifying
theappropriate items tobeplacedon an
inspection checklist, indecidingwhat a
pre-task risk assessment should include, in
determiningwhat training requirements
shouldbe included andwhat opportunities
there are to recognisegoodperformers,
helps to showmanagement trusts the
judgment of the front line and in turn
creates amorepositiveperception toward
safety.
This is not anew approach tomanaging
and improving safety. Thewords
‘continuous’ or ‘continual’ havebeen
used formany years todescribea system
formaking incremental improvements
inbusiness processes over the long term.
Why not use the same system tomanage
safety? Theprocess is not easy, but it is
fairly simple. Start by assessing the current
stateof the safety culture, thenbuild a
strategy, developneeded improvements
through conducting rapid improvement
workshops, pilot those improvements in
small sample sizes,make any necessary
adjustments and complete a full roll-out
to theworkforce, then checkperformance.
This cycle continues tobe repeatedover
the long term. Additionally, as new safety
programs, policies, etc are created the
front line shouldbe engaged sooner,
rather than later.
Managing Safety
Traditionally, safetymanagement has
been left up to the safety professional
and changehas beendrivenby the
measurement of thingswedidnot
intend tohappen (injuries). Results-
based indicators provide somedegreeof
benefit tomanagement teams as such
measurements trackedover the long term
canprovideevidence a safety system is
going in the right, orwrong, direction.
However,most employees cannot explain
how injury rates are calculated and this
management approachprovides very little
in theway of employee engagement and
ownership.Managing safety through the
things people can control and influence
(activities) and engaging the right people
indesigningwhat those activities look
likeprovides anopportunity tomeasure
performance and recognise success
(accountability), which leads toa cultureof
safety excellence.
Changinga culture is difficult and
takes persistenceand consistency, the
samediligence required inother business
system improvement efforts. Usingproven
businessmanagement principles, engaging
and empowering theworkforce, allowing
for flexibilitywhere it is needed and
holding everyone accountableare theonly
methods sure todeliver consistent results.
Brett Haskins, CSP, isAsia Pacific
RegionalManager for Caterpillar Safety
Services. (
). For
Caterpillar’s safety culture solutions, visit
safety.cat.com
HR
24
|
HIRE
AND
RENTAL
NEWS
| MAY 2014
INDUSTRY IN FOCUS
