No other department in your organization is focused on negative reinforcement to try to improve performance. How did this happen in safety and why has it lasted so long?
If you've been frustrated by failed attempts to get buy-in to safety (something more than just basic minimum compliance), you are going to have to look at your engagement levels first.
Welcome to a new series of Safety Buy-in videos to help you clarify your safety message, build supervisor support, and get employee buy-in. This week we focus on complacency and adopting a mindset that complacency is a result you get when you don’t engage your people in a meaningful way.
Most companies would prefer that their employees step up and voluntarily do their best work, instead of being pushed to do the bare minimum. But while you may be focused on getting compliance, are you missing the big picture of getting their commitment?
Business development is the focus of most companies. Getting more customers, making more sales, upselling existing clients. Companies hone and adjust their marketing messages to attract more revenues. When more clients buy from us, there is cause for celebration.
Everybody cares about something. And they do care about it … in their own way. The challenge in getting your people to care about safety lies largely with how they understand and interpret the word safety.
Disengagement rates in the workplace are too high. In North America, Gallup says that 65% of North American workers are not actively engaged in their work. And that is going to spell trouble for safety. You’ve been trying to get your employees to focus on safety and your efforts have not been effective. Here’s why.
I ran across another book recently that, on the back cover, suggested that the point of safety was to send people home in the same condition as when they arrived. I shuddered. Someone muttered that awful send them home safe phrase once and someone else must have thought it was clever. So, they borrowed it and then repeated it to someone else. And that someone must have picked it up and run with it until they had the chance to say it again. Now it's everywhere. And it means nothing.
