Kevin Burns Blog

Every industrial organization strives to achieve safety excellence. However, many companies find themselves stuck at a performance plateau despite having solid safety programs in place. This article explores why developing frontline supervisor leadership skills is crucial for breaking through these plateaus and creating a sustainable safety culture that protects every worker.

There's a fundamental shift that occurs the moment a front-facing employee becomes the crew's supervisor. And the quicker you understand the shift, the faster you will get the buy-in of your team.

Safety buy-in happens when you engage your people, simplify the communications, figure out the prime objective, and get supervisors on board. When you have safety buy-in, do you think you will need safety speakers anymore?

When selling your team on the benefits of safety, you must remember this one key element that is more likely to create buy-in than any compelling argument you may have for safety. Watch the video.

What happens when the word "safety" becomes a barrier to safety buy-in? It is happening with increasing frequency in all sectors and industries. And it's probably happening in your company too.

No other department in your organization is focused on negative reinforcement to try to improve performance. How did this happen in safety and why has it lasted so long?

If you've been frustrated by failed attempts to get buy-in to safety (something more than just basic minimum compliance), you are going to have to look at your engagement levels first.

Welcome to a new series of Safety Buy-in videos to help you clarify your safety message, build supervisor support, and get employee buy-in. This week we focus on complacency and adopting a mindset that complacency is a result you get when you don’t engage your people in a meaningful way.

Business development is the focus of most companies. Getting more customers, making more sales, upselling existing clients. Companies hone and adjust their marketing messages to attract more revenues. When more clients buy from us, there is cause for celebration.

Everybody cares about something. And they do care about it … in their own way. The challenge in getting your people to care about safety lies largely with how they understand and interpret the word safety.