The 3-Step Plan To Improve Safety Buy-in

When employees buy-in to safety, you focus less on what they do wrong and expect more that they will do right.

3-step plan safety buy-in

It’s a fairly simple argument: when employees buy-in to the safety program, you no longer need to police them. All they need is a little coaching and mentoring. When employees buy-in to the safety program, they don’t forget their PPE. They engage in safety meetings. They demonstrate courtesy and respect for their fellow employees. In other words, policing, compliance enforcement and “gotcha” management goes right out the window. Those become archaic, cumbersome, outdated practices that slow down safety performance.

When employees buy-in to the safety program, there is less focus on catching them doing something wrong. The emphasis is on expecting that they will make the right decisions. When the majority (which is half plus one) buy-in to the safety program, the culture shifts. The small pockets of safety naysayers become less influential. Those who would undermine the safety program lose their power. Mumblers and grumblers become so last year.

But how do you get people to buy-in to safety? Here is a 3-step plan that will help improve your chances of convincing employees to buy-in to the safety program:

1People buy-in to the safety leader before they buy-in to the safety program. Processes don't deliver safety. People do. If it were processes, you wouldn’t need safety people. You would just need the safety manual. But, it is people who make right or wrong decisions. It is people who impact a worker’s decision to stay with the company or leave. A good manager in a tough culture can still hang on to his people. A poor manager can still cause people to leave a good company. A company is only as good as its people. A safety program is only as good as the people who engage safety. For safety managers and supervisors, you can be feared or be trusted. But you can not be both. People do not trust those they fear. People do not fear those they trust. Make a decision which way you want to be seen. Fear will turn over staff. Trust will allow employees to be convinced.
Step 1: Gain their trust and be a decent human being.

2Don't try to present something. Try to make them feel something. This is where safety meetings fail. Safety managers just present. They don’t try to make attendees feel. Poorly-trained safety managers rely on gruesome photos and stories to make people feel something. But it’s the wrong kind of feeling. Safety shouldn’t make you feel sick to your stomach. Safety shouldn't make you sad. Safety should make your feel prepared and confident. Safety managers and supervisors, like any other employee, fear judgment. Fear of judgment is an ego issue. Caring about your co-workers is a heartfelt emotion. People will care about their safety when they know how much you care about them. Once people feel you care, they buy-in. People buy emotionally and justify their decisions logically. So if you want people to buy-in, help them see that safety makes them feel more powerful.
Step 2: Show that you care about your people’s safety. Really show it.

3Safety managers must spend more time convincing and less time controlling. You cannot control choices, outcomes and results. But you can influence the thought process. Once convinced to buy-in to safety, an employee no longer needs to be controlled. More time spent convincing employees means less time controlling them. Be a provider of solutions instead of the creator of animosity and hard feelings. Your people have one main problem: how are they supposed to do good, productive work and stay safe and healthy at the same time? Can you fix that problem? That's the job of every good safety manager and supervisor. It is not to enforce rules because if you have to enforce a rule, you're already too late. You're playing catch-up. You're not in front of the problem. You're behind it reacting. And you are creating another problem by embarrassing your employees.
Step 3: Engage in the one-on-one conversations and convince employees to buy-in one at a time.

10 Crucial Questions for Safety Managers

The battle for the "hearts and minds" of employees in safety usually ignores the "hearts" part and info-dumps on the "minds" part. Stop trying so hard to appeal to a person’s logic when it comes to safety. They already know that the safety program makes logical sense. Appeal to their values and convictions and the things they love. Make them feel valued and important to your team’s success. Ask them to lead by their own example to others in safety. Ask them to help you change the way safety gets done. Ask them to be safety leaders.

Kevin Burns gives engaging, entertaining and inspiring speeches to front-line employees at safety meetings. He also works with supervisors and safety managers on-site or in keynote presentations at conferences. He is an expert in how to get through to people. Kevin helps organizations integrate caring for and valuing employees through their safety programs. Kevin Burns is a management consultant, safety speaker and author of "The Perfect Safety Meeting" and "Running With Scissors - 10 Reasons To Invest in Safety In Slow Times."

(c) Can Stock Photo

Topics: safety leadership, safety buy-in, selling safety