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People Based Safety
- 1. People-Based Safety David Wei, MBA Safety Specialist
Editor's Notes
- Acting: To build a great safety culture, we need to help people move from other-directed behavior to self-directed, safe behavior. In other words, facilitating a transition from safety accountability – “I’m working safely because someone is holding me accountable” – to safety responsibility – “I’m working safely because I’m holding myself accountable”. Coaching: Interpersonal communication is the critical intervention step of safety coaching. While safety interactions are not the only opportunity for people to coach one another at work, they’re a good place to start. When coaching someone, the key objectives are to facilitate a conversation, give constructive feedback and help the person to improve safety. If we coach the other person through problem solving and help them to come up with their own solutions, they will feel personal ownership and responsibility. Thinking: Instead of always telling people what to do to remain safe, balance this by giving people the knowledge, understanding, tools and resources to understand how to improve safety themselves and the opportunity to implement their own initiatives. Seeing: To improve people’s perception of hazards, we might have to overcome ‘groupthink’. Groupthink is a false sense of consensus where everyone always agrees with one another and a team thinks it can do no wrong. Groupthink often occurs when teams are completing risk assessments. In order to complete the paperwork and ‘get on with the job’, the team will write down a list of typical risks associated with the job. Unfortunately, they might not take the time to see hazards that are unique to a particular day or a particular site. Effective leaders can overcome this by encouraging people to actively seek out hazards, question the status quo and discuss improvements as a group.
- When employees’ attitudes are favorable, employees follow safe procedures, report and fix safety hazards, participate in safety initiatives, warn coworkers about safety hazards and risky behaviors, and teach and model safe work practices for newer employees. When employees are scared and/ or angry on the job, they hide injuries, take shortcuts, resist safety improvement efforts and quit providing safety feedback to others. Complainers usually voice safety concerns to express displeasure, not to make improvements. They typically believe that other people are responsible for their problems; and that people do not have control over their own lives. feelings of anger, resentment, doubt, frustration and fear. Spectators rarely discuss safety concerns since they perceive that their actions will have little or no consequence on the organization or work team. They typically believe that others will solve important problems; and that people have minimal control over their lives. feel uninspired, detached, unemotional and indifferent. Champions express safety concerns constructively and work effectively with others to make improvements. They believe that problems create opportunities for change; that change is a sign of growth; and that people control their own lives. feelings of confidence, happiness, personal control and optimism.
- 1. Employees with effective communication skills are better able to constructively express their concerns, relate to coworkers and achieve their work goals compared to those with poor communication skills. This directly impacts employee’s attitudes and morale. 2. One of the strongest predictors of human behavior is locus of control – “the extent to which individuals believe that they, or that external factors, control their lives”. 3. Personal and positive recognition for proactive safety efforts improves self-efficacy because it reinforces one’s sense of ability and accomplishment. This facilitates champion attitudes throughout the organization.
- 4. Optimism reflects the degree to which an individual’s expectations for the future are positive and that life is generally good. Optimism not only affects an individual’s mood state, it predicts performance. 5. Praising safe work practices is an effective way to improve self-esteem and promote champion attitudes. It is also more effective than excessive punishment in motivating optimal long-term safety performance. 6. The employee’s sense of belonging is enhances by team-building exercises, group goal-setting and feedback, group safety celebrations and self-managed work teams.
- 7. Increase empathy can minimize the “us vs. them” mentality that can divide a workforce and negatively impact attitudes. This is accomplished through one-on-one discussions, safety meetings and training, and employee “testimonials,” during which workers share personal experiences that impact their lives (e.g., a serious injury and its ramifications). 8. To increase institutional power motivation within employees, they must be given power to manage important safety programs themselves. This promotes interdependence and champion attitudes. 9. Certain types of training (such as person-based safety training) facilitate self-monitoring. 10. Individuals with high self-awareness manage their own emotions more effectively. When moved to anger, individuals with low self-awareness are more likely to have negative outbursts and remember negative events longer than those with high self-awareness.
- When the collective attitude of employees is poor, employees stop providing each other with feedback for safety; stop reporting near misses and injuries; resist safety improvement initiatives; and quit trying to make things better for the safety of themselves and others.