Safety Hearts & Minds

3 Strategies To Improve Your Safety Management Effectiveness

Posted by Kevin Burns on Jul 29, 2015 6:07:00 PM

Every safety person could ask themselves whether what they are making is what the company deems they are worth?

I received an email this week from a reader. As a safety person, he had concern that his employer didn’t support him in continued learning. There were courses they wouldn’t pay for and time-off not granted. So, he dug into his own pocket, paid for his own courses and found a way to get the learning. What he discovered was that he felt he was worth more than the company perceived.

John Earl Shoaff once said, “What you earn is not all the company pays. It’s what they pay YOU!”

Every safety person could ask themselves whether what they are making is what the company deems they are worth? The key is your perceived value; what others think your value is worth. Until you change the perception, you will wallow in mediocrity. You will not be taken seriously as someone who has great perceived value.

Two Key Strategies To Become Indispensable In Safety

Posted by Kevin Burns on Jul 20, 2015 5:40:00 PM

As a safety person, are you distinguishing yourself from others and making yourself indispensable?

Safety people in several sectors are having a tough time finding new work. The pickings are tough. Safety jobs in oil and gas, for example, have dried up while the world price stays low. That’s had a domino-effect in other industries too. It’s a tough time to look for work.

Why should we hire you? It’s the question asked when you are interviewed. Potential employers will ask the same question when surfing through your LinkedIn profile.

Employers looking for safety people search for something that distinguishes that person from others and makes them indispensable. Unfortunately, safety people have a lot of boring profiles on LinkedIn.

Top 5 Strategies To Inspire Safety Performance

Posted by Kevin Burns on Mar 4, 2015 1:29:00 PM

To inspire your people to buy-in to safety, you must make safety inspiring.

“If you want to your safety program to run like a well-oiled machine, consider your people as “moving parts.” Parts need maintenance for best performance. Coach, communicate and inspire their best. It’s safety after all.” - Kevin Burns

Top 5 Things Safety Managers & Supervisors Need To Know

Posted by Kevin Burns on Feb 5, 2015 4:32:00 PM

Here are the five most important things you need to know about being effective in your safety position.

The term safety manager refers to anyone responsible for providing direction in safety. If they are managing or supervising or overseeing the safety program in any way, they are safety managers. I am not referring to your title.

Top 5 Things Employees Want From Safety Supervisors

Posted by Kevin Burns on Dec 8, 2014 9:46:00 PM

People really want to respect their boss. So don't make it hard for them to do it.

In 2011, Google launched Project Oxygen. It was a management undertaking to determine what were the top traits that employees at Google expected of their managers. Up to this point, Google had promoted those with the greatest technical experience into management positions. The conventional thinking was that those who understood the job best, could manage the work the best.

4 Reasons You Hate "Selling" Safety But Have To Do It Anyway

Posted by Kevin Burns on Dec 2, 2014 11:08:00 PM

Selling safety meets resistance. It’s not about shoving safety down their throats. It’s about helping them see that safety improves their lives.

Use the word "sell" and safety managers get their backs up. The belief is that safety shouldn’t have to be sold. The word “selling” gets in the way of the true purpose of safety.

5 Reasons Safety Meetings Need One Leader

Posted by Kevin Burns on Oct 14, 2014 2:43:00 PM

The best safety meetings have both conviction and experience. The safety meeting is far too important to hand off to an inexperienced person and hope that it goes OK.

Can employees lead the safety meeting? It is an idea that hopes to lead to increased engagement. The thinking is that if a new voice speaks, people will listen. If a staffer leads the meeting, then others will engage better. It might be true. But there is a stronger case for not putting the responsibility onto employees.

Why Safety Managers Cling To The Rules

Posted by Kevin Burns on Oct 1, 2014 8:34:00 PM

Being in a position of authority doesn’t automatically make you a leader. Your safety management positon doesn't automatically elevate you.

Managers, who have no self-confidence about their abilities, cling to the rules. The reason for that is simple: the rules are always on your side and when you stick to the rules, you will always be right. That's why safety meetings cling to the rules, the statistics and the reports; they are irrefutable. They are proof. They are results. By clinging to the rules and statistics, there is no room for employees to challenge the person delivering them.

5 Things Employees Want From Safety Meetings

Posted by Kevin Burns on Sep 3, 2014 7:15:00 PM

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.

The 3 Key Ingredients To Get Respect As A Safety Manager

Posted by Kevin Burns on Aug 27, 2014 11:42:00 PM

The high-performance, respected safety managers of tomorrow must improve in three key areas today.

Safety managers, safety supervisors, safety officers, safety advisers, safety personnel, foremen, crew chiefs, human resources personnel - it doesn’t matter the title. If you have a hand in managing the company safety program, you are a safety manager (one who manages).