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Kevin Burns Blog

Leadership for frontline industrial supervisors.

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What Guitar Store Employees Can Teach About Safety
Posted by Kevin Burns on October 1, 2024
What Guitar Store Employees Can Teach About Safety
To attract the people who already buy-in to safety as a personal value, you need to study the example of how guitar-stores hire employees. You don't find personal values on a résumé. The résumé is a lousy tool for finding engaged workers with a set of personal values that buy-in to safety. A résumé doesn't give you that information. It only tells others what a worker was allowed to do in their last job - not what they were good at, not what they stand for and certainly not what makes their bum hum (excites them and drives high motivation).
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5 Parts to Zero-Safety: Why The 80-20 Rule Is Preventing Zero
Posted by Kevin Burns on October 1, 2024
5 Parts to Zero-Safety: Why The 80-20 Rule Is Preventing Zero
The 80/20 Rule, The Pareto Principle, may be the exact reason you can't seem to hit Zero in safety and consistently hold it there. What you might think is the problem, is not actually the problem. Safety is not something you do or manage; it is the result of five things done right. Unfortunately, the focus for achieving Zero has historically been solely on the OH&S part. But it is only one-fifth, or twenty percent, of what needs to be addressed.
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Why "Be Safe" Is A Terrible Safety Message
Posted by Kevin Burns on October 1, 2024
Why
Safety managers and safety supervisors complain that their employees won't buy-in to safety. They also complain about employees' lack of engagement and a lack of accountability in the safety program.
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5+1 Reasons To Get Safety Buy-in
Posted by Kevin Burns on October 1, 2024
5+1 Reasons To Get Safety Buy-in
Safety incidents are on the rise. Workers are getting hurt because of decisions they make. Oh, sure, safety managers try to reduce the numbers of incidents through compliance but compliance alone doesn't work. If it did, every workplace would already be at Zero and stay there all of the time. So, more compliance is obviously not the answer.
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Stop Scare-Tactics - Focus On Building Safety Partnerships
Posted by Kevin Burns on October 1, 2024
Stop Scare-Tactics - Focus On Building Safety Partnerships
Make safety buy-in about what your employees can gain, not what they have to lose. We don't buy-in to a financial plan because of what we might lose. We don't buy-in to a healthy lifestyle because of what we might lose. We don't buy-in to personal development because of what we might lose. We don't buy-in to going to university because of what we might lose. But safety is focused on reminding workers of what they might lose if they don't comply - instead of showing people how safety buy-in makes life better.
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Treating Employees Like A Problem-Child In Safety
Posted by Kevin Burns on October 1, 2024
Treating Employees Like A Problem-Child In Safety
Before you plan your next safety meeting, ask yourself if your intent is to scare your workers into compliance. Do you want them to be afraid, or to get them to voluntarily buy-in to safety as a personal value?
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Five Strategies To Improve Safety Buy-in
Posted by Kevin Burns on October 1, 2024
Five Strategies To Improve Safety Buy-in
Accidents don't happen in the safety manager's office. They happen in the field. That's where the management of safety must take place. High safety performance doesn't magically come about in organized safety meetings, although good safety meetings are part of the solution. Safety performance happens when you deal with safety issues, decisions and behaviors one on one.
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5 Reasons Why Poor Safety Promotion Increases Incident Numbers
Posted by Kevin Burns on October 1, 2024
5 Reasons Why Poor Safety Promotion Increases Incident Numbers
When marketing of safety goes up, safety-incident numbers go down. Plain and simple, this works. Raise awareness of safety, sell the idea of safety and you will increase safety results. People choose safety when asked to.
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Brute Force Doesn't Change Safety Values
Posted by Kevin Burns on October 1, 2024
Brute Force Doesn't Change Safety Values
Just because they wear safety gear doesn't mean they will choose safety in every moment. Do not confuse an employee's willingness to abide by safety rules as proof that they accept safety as a personal value. Just because they have never had an incident doesn't mean they choose to buy-in to safety.
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Selling Safety To Senior Management
Posted by Kevin Burns on March 30, 2021
Selling Safety To Senior Management
Senior managers who only want to put in an appearance at safety meetings should just stay away. Senior managers can't just show up halfway through a safety meeting, glad-hand a bit and then leave in favour of a meeting that is supposedly "more important." If safety is not the most important meeting for senior managers, then it sends a terrible message to employees.
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