Safety incidents are on the rise. Workers are getting hurt because of decisions they make. Oh, sure, safety managers try to reduce the numbers of incidents through compliance but compliance alone doesn't work. If it did, every workplace would already be at Zero and stay there all of the time. So, more compliance is obviously not the answer.
Right now, a good portion of your people don't actually believe in safety. Don't be fooled by the fact that they wear Personal Protective Equipment, and they play by your rules. That's only because you make them as a condition of keeping their jobs. To understand that point, you only have to consider how many unsafe things your people did this morning to get to work on-time to a job that calls for safety: speeding, distracted driving, cracks in the windshields and lights that don't work. They don't really buy-in to safety. They just tolerate rules.
Safety is something you choose. In the same way that some people choose to drive the speed limit and some don't. Some choose protective gear to cut the lawn at home, and some do it in flip flops. Not everyone buys into safety.
Bonus Reason For Safety Buy-in: Money
It's been proven that when employees buy-in to safety, turnover drops, production goes up and ultimately, it makes the company more money. Here's how. For every dollar spent on direct costs as the result of an accident, another two dollars and twelve cents gets spent on indirect costs - lost production, disruption and downtime, worker replacement, re-training, legal fees, and increased insurance premiums.
But it also turns out that for every dollar invested in improving workplace safety, up to four dollars and forty-one cents comes back to you in increased productivity, reduced operating costs, greater retention of employees, better morale and greater job satisfaction. Simply put, a workplace with safety issues will keep turning over staff while demonstrably safe workplaces keep their staff and get better production.
So, you can waste $3.12 by cleaning up after an incident - or you can keep $4.41 by getting employees to buy-in to safety.
In addition to the direct financial benefits, here are five more reasons to get employees to buy-in to safety:
1Safety Buy-in Is Stronger Than Compliance - Compliance is a short-term safety strategy that requires enforcement over and over again. If you stop enforcing, workers return to their old behaviors. Safety Buy-in, on the other hand, survives enforcement and continues even when no one is watching. When people buy-in to safety, it becomes a personal value. Then, your people choose safety without being told. As a safety manager, you must get your people to the buy-in stage to sustain a successful safety culture.
2Negative Reinforcement Is Not Working - Gruesome photos, videos and gut-wrenching stories and presentations of people who have been injured are old, tired and just don't work anymore. Your people don't want to be told over and over what "not" to do. They don't need to hear a message of "don't do what I did." They want a blueprint for success in safety - something more than rules and procedures. Avoidance of failure is not the same as achieving success. You must offer your people real strategies and ideas to move them from simple compliance to safety leadership.
3Safety Managers Need To Keep It Fresh - It's tough for the same people to be responsible for the same messaging day-in and day-out without boring your people. People don't want to hear, over and over again, the same message of "do this, but don't do that" in safety. Your people tire of the redundancy. You need a fresh approach to getting your people to do more than just basic minimum compliance. You need to safety buy-in from your employees through new ideas and communication strategies. A safety buy-in strategy must inspire each person's individual motivation to keep their own personal safety top-of-mind.
4Safety Is Evolving - What may have worked yesterday, does not work today. Safety is evolving, changing and growing with new ideas, strategies and especially people. New workers are turning their backs on old compliance programs. Safety is seeping into white-collar areas. Acceptance of new safety values are on an upswing - but not through old safety ideas. Safety is going mainstream. You MUST keep current. Your organization can not afford to fall behind in emerging safety trends.
5Your Performance Is Being Measured - Just like the results of the safety plan, your performance as a safety manager/supervisor is being measured. Are you a safety "officer" or safety "adviser?" Safety officers build rules and police and enforce their job sites. Safety advisers coach, inspire, motivate, mentor and communicate with their workers. Safety managers/supervisors have got to be able to communicate with employees in a way that makes workers want to buy-in to safety for themselves.
Safety Buy-in is what I help companies and safety managers accomplish. Contact me to ask how I can help your organization develop better safety buy-in.
