--- title: "\"Safety-First\" Is Not The Priority Anymore" description: There are no such things as priorities. You can have a priority, one. Otherwise, it’s not a priority anymore. For you, what is THE priority? “Safety First” is not the priority anymore. Let’s discuss what it should be. image: https://www.kevburns.com/hubfs/thumb-18.png --- "Safety-First" Is Not The Priority Anymore [![KevBurns Learning: We teach industrial supervisors how to be really great leaders.](https://www.kevburns.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Kev-Burns-Learning-white.png?width=240&height=118&name=Kev-Burns-Learning-white.png "KevBurns Learning: We teach industrial supervisors how to be really great leaders.")](https://www.kevburns.com/) - [About](https://www.kevburns.com/about-kevin-burns) - [Supervisor Academy](https://www.kevburns.com/supervisors) - [7 Reasons to Not Work With Us](https://www.kevburns.com/7-reasons-not-to-work-with-us) - [52 Benefits of Safety](https://www.kevburns.com/52-benefits) - [Hope Calculator](https://www.kevburns.com/calculator) - [Issues](https://www.kevburns.com/safety-issues) - [People](https://www.kevburns.com/people-issues) - [Safety](https://www.kevburns.com/safety-issues) - [Escalations](https://www.kevburns.com/escalation-issues) - [Resources](https://www.kevburns.com/books) - [Books](https://www.kevburns.com/books) - [Newsletter](https://www.kevburns.com/newsletter) - [Downloads](https://www.kevburns.com/downloads) - [Case Study NBU](https://www.kevburns.com/nbu-case-study) - [Case Study WCC](https://www.kevburns.com/wcc-case-study-2026) - [ROI Videos](https://www.kevburns.com/videos) - [Speaking](https://www.kevburns.com/speaking) - [Media/Podcast](https://www.kevburns.com/media) - [Blog](https://www.kevburns.com/blog) - [Contact](https://www.kevburns.com/contact-us) - [About](https://www.kevburns.com/about-kevin-burns) - [Supervisor Academy](https://www.kevburns.com/supervisors) - [7 Reasons to Not Work With Us](https://www.kevburns.com/7-reasons-not-to-work-with-us) - [52 Benefits of Safety](https://www.kevburns.com/52-benefits) - [Hope Calculator](https://www.kevburns.com/calculator) - [Issues](https://www.kevburns.com/safety-issues) - [People](https://www.kevburns.com/people-issues) - [Safety](https://www.kevburns.com/safety-issues) - [Escalations](https://www.kevburns.com/escalation-issues) - [Resources](https://www.kevburns.com/books) - [Books](https://www.kevburns.com/books) - [Newsletter](https://www.kevburns.com/newsletter) - [Downloads](https://www.kevburns.com/downloads) - [Case Study NBU](https://www.kevburns.com/nbu-case-study) - [Case Study WCC](https://www.kevburns.com/wcc-case-study-2026) - [ROI Videos](https://www.kevburns.com/videos) - [Speaking](https://www.kevburns.com/speaking) - [Media/Podcast](https://www.kevburns.com/media) - [Blog](https://www.kevburns.com/blog) - [Contact](https://www.kevburns.com/contact-us) # Kevin Burns Blog #### Improve safety culture. Build teamwork. Get employee buy-in. [Current Articles](https://www.kevburns.com/blog) [RSS](https://www.kevburns.com/blog/rss.xml) [Why Work With Kevin?](https://www.kevburns.com/about-kevin-burns) # "Safety-First" Is Not The Priority Anymore Posted by [Kevin Burns](https://www.kevburns.com/blog/author/kevin-burns) on October 1, 2024 ### What if your "one thing" was to make a difference? There are no such things as priorities. You can have *a* priority; one. But you can’t have more than one priority. Besides, it’s not a priority if it competes for attention with other priorities. You can have a lot of things that are important, or urgent or critical. But there is room for only one priority. It is that one priority that you can build a company, an ideal or a movement around. For you, what is *THE* priority? What is your *one thing* that you place above all others? Is it that nobody got hurt today? Is that your one thing? Well, that is sort of the expectation: to not hurt anyone. Perhaps we should reconsider how quick we are to celebrate that we sent people home safe. That’s what we’re supposed to do. Instead, what if your one thing was to **make a difference in the lives of your people**? - To send them home **better** than they showed up at work. - To help them find a **new talent** or skill they didn’t know they had. - To help them want to **look out** for their fellow team members better. - To **speak up** at the safety meeting. - To **congratulate** a fellow crew member for their excellent attention to detail. - To help them go from competent employee to **highly-valued** and highly-skilled employee. **Do all of these things and it’s far more likely that your people are going to go home safe anyway.** As much as it may have been drilled into you and you have heard it uttered on your worksite, *safety first* is not the priority. ***People first*** is the priority. All things come from that priority: engagement, coaching, motivation, work-ethic, quality, value, caring and, yes, safety. It’s people that we must make the priority. What I discuss at length in my book ***[PeopleWork: The Human Touch in Workplace Safety](https://www.kevburns.com/peoplework)*** is that all things we do at work, including safety, must support the priority: people. The ***[M4 Method TM](https://www.kevburns.com/contact)*** in the book lays out a strategy to help improve your organization’s safety performance by addressing the four key areas of management, meetings, marketing and motivation. **The priority is *people-first*.** [![7 Nuts n Bolts Strategies for Safety Communications](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/237929/2b3df0d1-b22d-4be2-a588-d142189a8a5e.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/237929/2b3df0d1-b22d-4be2-a588-d142189a8a5e) You become an employer of choice when yours becomes that *“people-first”* workplace. That’s the workplace people want to be part of. That’s the workplace other companies want to do business with. That’s the workplace that prides itself on how it looks after its people and keeps them safe. \-- *Put Kevin Burns' expertise and his proprietary [**M4 Method TM**](https://www.kevburns.com/contact) to work in your organization. Whether it's for a one-day safety event or training/facilitation session, or perhaps Kevin's **90-Day Safety Accelerator** program and the **High-Participation Safety Culture Shift** program. There is a program that can work for you, your front-line crews, your management team, your safety committee and your supervisors.* *Kevin Burns is a management consultant, speaker/facilitator and author of **[PeopleWork: The Human Touch in Workplace Safety](https://www.kevburns.com/peoplework).** He is an expert in how to engage people in safety and believes that the best place to work is always the safest place to work.* ***Get details and more information [http://www.kevburns.com/contact](https://www.kevburns.com/contact)*** Topics: [safety leadership](https://www.kevburns.com/blog/topic/safety-leadership), [safety buy-in](https://www.kevburns.com/blog/topic/safety-buy-in), [safety communications](https://www.kevburns.com/blog/topic/safety-communications), [peoplework](https://www.kevburns.com/blog/topic/peoplework), [safety complacency](https://www.kevburns.com/blog/topic/safety-complacency) ### Subscribe today to Kevin's blog --- Kevin Burns' newest book, **The CareFull Supervisor**. 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