My great friend Chuck once said that his goal was to make safety simple, so he named his company after that thought. We share a lot in common. The fact that safety can be simple is one of them.
Don’t get me wrong: Trying to navigate the labyrinth of regulations, codes, and guidelines is daunting. Companies must make sense of an alphabet soup of local, state, and federal agencies. Compliance calendars can look more crowded than Times Square on New Year’s Eve.
I have sat in audits from just about every acronym there is. Even still, safety can be boiled down to three main steps. I will call them the ABCs of safety: Admit, Believe, Comply.
Admit
The first step, and arguably the most difficult, is to admit there is room for improvement. Too often – and tragically – companies take this step after an event or incident. Lack of resources, knowledge, and direction can be a stumbling block for leadership to take this step. It requires commitment and courage to take an honest look at your company’s policies and protocols that may not be doing enough to keep workers safe.
Believe
Now the rubber meets the road. Companies need to believe in safety, not just know the regulations.
Believing is actually investing time, effort, and resources. Believing as a company involves every level. You can’t have production believing in safety while leadership doesn’t. You will always be fighting resources, and employees will get frustrated eventually. They will quit, or worse, they will stay and stop caring. This is where you see an incident and leadership seeks someone to blame.
On the other foot, when leadership believes in safety and your production does not, you have safety hypocrisy. This is when employees know how to be safe, but they only do so to avoid punishment from leadership. The second the boss leaves, the uncomfortable PPE comes off. Lack of buy-in usually results from a lack of understanding why things are done. Becoming real with the “whys” and committing to investment is hard, but without this step companies see history repeating.
Comply
The final step is compliance. This is where the money is spent and where sweat is applied. This is where the hard conversations are put into practice.
By now, you have identified the gaps in your systems, and your whole company believes in your approach to safety. Now all you have to do is implement change.
There are many methods of how to implement change. My best advice is to make a plan, communicate the plan, and make sure the plan is followed. This is where you will reap the rewards of your efforts.
Your investment is a shining example that you are committed. You show everyone that you care. Safety is not a slogan or a poster, it’s now become a part of your identity.
My final advice? Don’t stop. Companies that do become stale and complacent. The message gets diluted, and respect is lost. Honestly, the process is easier to spell out in an article. It’s a lot harder to put in place with teams that are varied in background, motivation, and priorities. It is also fair to say that safety has a lot of competition for attention, especially in today’s market.
But I agree with my friend Chuck – we have to show people the safe way home. In the end, that is all that matters.
Dean Alling is the safety director for Ray-Carroll Coop in Richmond, MO (deana@ray-carroll.com, 817-932-1000).