You need to get down to what matters in safety meetings: talking WITH your people - not AT them.
Safety is about preparedness - yet the safety meeting does not meet that standard. All too often, safety meetings get thrown together at the last minute. This does not inspire confidence from employees.
Employees take their cues not from what safety managers say, but from what they do. ("Safety Manager," is an all-encompassing term meaning anyone who manages anything in safety. This includes managers, advisers, consultants, officers, supervisors, foremen, crew leaders and VPs.) These are all managers of the safety program - or in shorter terms, safety managers.
Safety managers assemble employees under one roof to improve safety performance. But, do those same safety managers work just as hard to improve safety meetings? Safety Meetings, after all, help improve safety performance and safety culture?
In order for people to get better at safety, they need an example. You’ve got to show them what getting better looks like if you want them to engage and look out for their co-workers.
In order for employees to be able to buy-in and to own safety as a personal value, they want five things from their safety meetings:
1The Right Tools/Processes. There is a sense of confidence in knowing that an employee has the right tools for the job and the best processes for keeping them safe. An employee who fears for his/her safety is a fearful employee. Confident workers make better decisions. Knowing they have the best tools and processes raises confidence levels.
2Current Information and Best Practices. What may have worked ten years ago may not today. Employees want to know that they can feel safe in knowing that the information they receive is current and the best way to stay safe.
3Internal Motivation To Want To Be Safe. Help your employees to become better safety performers. Help unlock their personal motivation to want to be safe. Without tapping into “desire,” you will have to enforce penalties. If they are missing the internal motivation to want to be safe, then you are going to be forever chasing them into compliance. But once they have a desire to want to be safe, they buy-in to the safety program as a personal value.
4External Inspiration To Feed Internal Motivation. People are not inspired by a fear of loss. They become inspired by what they will gain. Help each employee to discover the “what’s-in-it-for-me” part of safety. They will feed their own internal motivation to want to have it and keep wanting to have it.
5Recognition and Feedback. When employees do good work, safe work, they should become recognized. An employee that never gets an “atta-boy” will find someplace else to go for recognition. People won't improve if they don’t know how they are doing. Feedback and public recognition can help build a strong safety culture.
Toolbox and tailgate meetings address the first two items well. Big safety meetings are perfect for the last three: motivation, inspiration and recognition. If you want your people to do more than just complying with safety rules, engage them to buy-in to the safety program.
You need to get down to what matters in safety meetings: talking WITH your people - not AT them. It’s a meeting. It’s not a lecture. It’s not a one-way broadcast. The safety meeting is important. Make sure your people have plenty of encouragement, inspiration and motivation. It will help them make better decisions. Once they embrace safety and buy-in to it, they will choose safety on the job.
Your safety meeting must become more than just statistics, figures, reports, inspections and procedures. That’s boring and lazy. Data is not how you build teamwork and camaraderie.
Staff safety events should be the same as any other business meeting. Make them a mix of personal leadership skills, team-building and wellness.
For more ideas on building better safety meetings, download the free e-Book below.
