Safety managers and safety supervisors complain that their employees won't buy-in to safety. They also complain about employees' lack of engagement and a lack of accountability in the safety program.
Generic safety messages are like an ill-fitting suit: it's a suit, sure, but it is incredibly apparent that you are uncomfortable in it. Buy a suit off the rack and it looks like a cheap attempt to dress-up. But take that same suit, tailor the sleeves and buttons to the right length, tailor the pants, cuffs and waist to fit perfectly and it becomes a suit that someone is proud to wear. When a suit fits perfectly, it is never uncomfortable and you are more willing to wear it and own it. The same too with a safety message. It has to fit perfectly, or no one will want to wear it.
The Kindergartenization Of Safety
Is it any wonder that adults have a tough time buying into safety slogans that look like they were ripped from the pages of Dr. Suess books? How are people supposed to responsibly buy-in to something that looks so juvenile? Want proof? Have a look at how many of the following safety messages remind you of The Cat In the Hat or There's a Wocket In My Pocket:
A spill. A slip. A hospital trip.
Safety is gainful. Accident is painful.
Stay alert. Don't get hurt.
Your head will go splat without your hard hat.
10 fingers. 10 toes. If you are not safe - who knows?
Dr. Suess safety is kindergarten for adults. If you expect your employees to take safety seriously, to buy-in and own safety as a personal value, they have to have a safety message that resonates with their own personal values. Going for cutesy always affects the uptake of the safety message. Here's an example of Dr. Suess being applied to an in-flight safety demonstration where the rhyme overpowered the safety part.
What Nike Can Teach Us About Safety
Just Do It is Nike's message. They own it. They promote it. They have built their brand around it. Anyone dares to use their slogan and the army of lawyers come down hard on them. Nike owns Just Do It. But Be Safe is no one's message. No one owns it. No one has a bevy of lawyers who, to the death, protect it. So, if it belongs to no one, how can there be ownership of the message? How can you expect your people to buy-in to a message that you or your company don't even own?
Safety Managers who ask their people to be safe may as well tell them to be a Ph. D or be an astronaut for all the good it will do. Be Safe is an incomplete set of instructions because you have to DO something before you can BE something.
Do Not Forget The Action Part
You can not instruct people in what you want them to BE. You instruct them in what you want them to DO. Nike's message isn't Just Be It - it's Just DO It. Besides, Be Safe is a result - not an action. You can not be safe. You can choose, act, will and decide upon safety. But the runaway truck or the distracted bus driver or the faulty airplane or the icy roads may all prove that you can not be safe. You can, however, choose to accept your circumstances, make a decision and take an action based on safety.
Your safety record is the result of a series of individual decisions and actions all lining up. One decision could have changed everything. You don't just be safe each day. You DO safe things and make good decisions day after day until at some point, you realize that you are safe - in this moment. You have achieved a safe state of being.
Safety Buy-in Through Decisions And Actions
Be Safe gives the indication that you can turn it on or off on command. But you don't want your people to just be safe. You want them to act safely, to watch the backs of their fellow workers, to take safety home and impart the ideals of safety to their families. In other words, you want your people to buy-in to safety through their decisions and actions.
If the challenge is to be safe, then the nobody moves - nobody gets hurt philosophy is the fastest way to get there. But that's not what you want. You don't want them to BE safe. You want them to act safe, to choose safe, to embrace safety and to make the smart decisions for the betterment of themselves and their co-workers.
Be Safe may be familiar, but it is impossible to do and not very well thought out.
If you're looking for a few other ideas to improve safety communication and buy-in with your people, download the free e-book, 7 Nuts 'n Bolts Strategies For Safety Communication.