Turnover. Absenteeism. Rework. Near misses. Grievances. Quality issues. Up to 12 important metrics that matter to your success. And there are problems with every one of them at some point.
A safety manager asked me this week: "How would you create a world-class safety program?" I have to admit I was both excited and daunted by the question. Excited because this is exactly the kind of thinking that separates exceptional operations from average ones. Daunted because safety managers rarely get to think this way. They're too busy administering the program they already have.
There's a high cost of personal relationships you're asking a newly promoted supervisor to give up, but you're not compensating them for it. And it may be the one thing that costs you the most in productivity, safety, and engagement.
Almost every operation has said it at some point. It's probably on a poster in the break room. It gets implied in the Monday meeting, in the safety huddle, in the onboarding package. We're like a family here.
If your safety meetings are falling apart - employees interrupting, side conversations, someone hijacking the agenda - you've probably already tried the obvious fix.
You've tried the workshops. You've run the surveys. You've rolled out the initiatives. Employee engagement still isn't where it needs to be. And you can't build your safety culture without engaged employees. Here's the question nobody in the engagement industry wants you to ask.
You gave them the title. You gave them the schedule, the paperwork, and the HR contact number. But there is one thing most organizations never give their supervisors when they promote them. And it is the only thing that actually matters.
