Winning is defined in many ways. In sports, it’s a batting average over 300, or 90% of shots made, or the Super Bowl. In other professions, it’s who finishes first (sales, challenges, negotiating the best outcomes, etc.). But what is winning in the safety arena?
Traditionally, when senior management looked at safety and decided if the programs were successful, they looked at numbers. Did the organization finish in the top quartile or decile as an average against like-size companies?
Did they have zero OSHA violations? Some companies have instituted “zero” accident programs. You may have heard things like “Target Zero” or “Zero Accidents.” You may have also seen postings at various work sites stating, “This site has gone X amount of days without a lost time injury.” These are all laudable goals, but are not enough in today’s work environment. Numbers can only tell you so much.
Beyond numbers
Winning in safety goes far beyond avoiding accidents or complying with regulations. It represents a culture and mindset where safety is embedded into every aspect of an organization—from leadership commitment to employee engagement, work rule improvements and proactive risk assessments. It’s about striving for excellence in safety practices, achieving consistent results and creating an environment where everyone feels responsible for their own safety and that of their coworkers.
Winning in safety is fundamentally about creating and sustaining a safety culture. It’s not enough to simply follow rules or meet minimum legal requirements. A winning organization views safety as a core value—not just a priority that changes with operational pressure.
Now, we’ve all seen the corporate goals and objectives posted at many organizations. They always list safety as one of the top priorities. But is it? You need to establish a strong safety culture to really accomplish that objective. A strong safety culture is characterized by:
Leadership support and commitment
Communication programs where employees feel comfortable speaking up
Team-focused ownership of safety outcomes across all levels
Integration of safety into organizations’ decision-making processes
If we can accomplish these targets, then safety becomes a way of doing work and not just an external impediment to accomplishing production.
Leadership is at the heart
Let’s expand on a few of the points listed above. At the heart of winning in safety is strong leadership. Leaders must support safety initiatives and actively participate in them. Leadership has got to “walk the walk, not just talk the talk.” Participation in safety visits to work sites and engaging the work crews can pay many dividends. Active involvement in incident review and ensuring that resources are available to support the program is essential. Most of all, leaders should demonstrate that they are also accountable for the success of the program.
When leaders demonstrate these traits, it builds trust and motivates employees to take safety seriously.
Employees need to be more than just compliant with the company’s safety rules and procedures—they need to be engaged and have a voice. Engaged employees are more likely to identify hazards, suggest improvements and look out for one another.
Engagement means empowering employees with the authority and confidence to issue a “stop work” action if they feel the conditions are unsafe. It also means encouraging them to report near-misses, actively participate in safety committees and act as the organization’s champions of safety.
When workers feel heard and respected, they are more likely to take responsibility and become safety champions themselves.
Organizations that win in safety focus on proactive measures rather than simply reacting to incidents. Many past safety programs were reactive. Today’s successful programs approach safety proactively by identifying risks before they turn into accidents and continuously working to reduce them. They look at leading and lagging indicators to develop predictive approaches that can eliminate potential incidents. These may include risk assessment, reviewing near-misses, conducting safety observations and more.
Proactive safety ensures that issues are addressed early and corrective outcomes are communicated. This assists in establishing a clear picture of the safety culture and areas needing attention to leadership.
Winning in safety means building a culture where safety is a core value, not just a goal. It’s about creating a workplace where people are physically safe and respected, heard, engaged and empowered. When safety becomes part of the organization’s core, winning is the expected outcome.
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