Building a Strong Safety Culture Through Participation
Employee engagement is essential to working toward a common safety culture goal. Employees become engaged when they understand the company’s safety mission, and how their actions connect to this mission.
That can only happen through clear and consistent communication and involvement in safety processes such as these:
- Observation Reports – Safety Observation Reports is how all employees to report safety conditions in the workplace. This tool is used to recognize employees for safe work practices and also to report unsafe conditions in the workplace.
- Audits – In depth Safety Audits are conducted by safety management personnel. However, to foster employee engagement we have incorporated smaller safety awareness type audits that can be performed by any employee. This brings awareness to the employees performing the audit and to Safety Management when safety nonconformances are discovered. It’s a win-win!
- Introducing a Safety incentive and recognition program – A safety incentive program is used to recognize positive safety behavior and is a key factor in engaging employees in motivating, exciting, and memorable ways. This also helps build morale and focuses attention on achieving the goals of the organization's safety program. We are continually discovering new ways to provide these incentives!
- Routine drills – Emergency drills enable constructive feedback when there is no real danger. These opportunities are used to get employee engagement by gathering this feedback directly from the employees themselves.
- Introducing a Safety incentive and recognition program – A safety incentive program is used to recognize positive safety behavior and is a key factor in engaging employees in motivating, exciting, and memorable ways. This also helps build morale and focuses attention on achieving the goals of the organization's safety program. We are continually discovering new ways to provide these incentives!
- Daily work area inspections – These are routine inspections performed on equipment and tools. This provides the employee with confidence in the safety of the equipment they are using and as a way to alert the proper levels of management that equipment needs repair or replacement.
- Encourage feedback – We have established an open-door and a “see something, say something” policy and provided a distribution email that reaches every member of the Safety Department. This is a quick and easy way to communicate with the Safety Department and provide any feedback that employees may have.
- Creating a Safety Champion Program – A Safety Champion is an employee that is selected or volunteers as local safety representative at each of our facilities.
Their key goals and responsibilities include:
- A Safety point of contact at each location - Providing communication between safety management and local employees
- Create influence and change in the company's safety culture - Providing insight to changes in safety policies and procedures
- Support the workplace’s safety culture by promoting a safe work environment.
- Provide a basic level of understanding for safety related challenges at each facility.
- Encouraging engagement in safety in the workplace.
- Local point of contact for any Safety related concerns or questions.
- Local liaison between facility management, coworkers, and the Safety Department.