Emoji Safety: Is This Really a Thing?

Turning 50 had its ups and downs. Mostly ups. The only downside is I scored a 78 on my golf game this past Friday. That should tell you that my weekend was full of ups. One of my birthday gifts was an Amazon Halo from my mom. I am pretty thankful for it, and It spawned an idea I have been tinkering with after chatting with Julian Mercer at the ASSP Region VI Professional Development Conference . I could summarize this thought in two words. Emoji Safety. The conversation with Julian was merely about gauging how our employees feel at certain moments so that it gives all of us clues on a potential approach to a conversation. Any conversation. The conversation could be an empathetic conversation just asking how they are, or a conversation could include proper hazard identification. Whatever the case might be, if we knew what they were feeling as we approached them, we could change (on the spot) our approach to tailoring the conversation. Consider it resilient conversations.

In other words, the conversation needs to happen, but our approach could make or break whether the conversation continued or progressed to the desired outcomes.

The change to our approach could occur if they were wearing an emoji badge. It is consistent and similar to the red, yellow, and green ribbons attendees wore at the VPPPA Safety + Symposium in Nashville. A worn red bracelet/ribbon meant you wanted others to keep their distance, yellow meant it was ok to fist bump, and green meant you can shake hands, hug and be close to each other. Employees very rarely show their frustrations and if so it could be visible. But, do employees pick up on the telltale signs?

When the discussion with Julian started, I used an analogy and referenced the Charlotte Douglas airport restrooms. I exited the restrooms a trip or two ago, and I was fronted with a box on the wall with a red frowny face, a yellow straight face, and a green smiley face. It asked how my experience was at the airport restroom, and I was pleased with my experience and hit the green smiley face button. I told Julian about this experience and said, we don't do a good job at this in the workplace. Since this conversation happened in mid-August of 2021, Charlotte has upgraded the bathroom experience kiosk to be more specific and now uses emojis for a complete experience.

So, what do airport experience kiosks and emoji safety have to do with each other? Imagine if we had one of the experience boxes when employees enter the building for their shift? BUT, instead of asking them how their experience was, ask them how their night was? Ask them how their drive was? Ask them how their experiences at home are? Just short of wearing an emoji badge, the employees (if honest) could hit these signs or experience boxes proactively before they start their shift and we can get a better clue as to when, where, and what kind of error/accuracy might be down the road.

We (SafesStart) have conducted several "Rate Your State" programs at many different companies and it does provide insight into employees' potential state of mind prior to hazard exposure. It isn't like wearing a badge though. Larry Wilson used to ask me, if you could tell me when and where would you most likely make a mistake, "What would you do when that time came around?" "Well, raise your awareness of course!" Was my response. In the Rate Your State SafeStart app, I get an alert on my Apple Watch because I set up an alarm on the app answering Larry's question. My answer to Larry's question is always on Sunday mornings and Thursday afternoons. Why might you ask? Since I travel for work, I get most frustrated at the airports. In the last 15 years, my airport visits are mostly Sunday mornings and Thursday afternoons. Sundays to travel to the worksite and Thursdays to travel home. It is more predictable that Thursday afternoons are more likely to cause an error because I just want to get home (my state of mind). Emoji Safety could help you with this on the leading indicator motivator that we all search for daily. I was proactively warned because I walk faster than most and I want everyone to move my speed or get out of my way. The alert got me to recollect myself and be more patient and be more aware of other humans.

Full circle back to my birthday gift from my Mom. The Amazon Halo does not provide Rate Your State or Emoji Badges. It does however take a page out of health, wellness, and why I wrote this article in the first place, TONE. If safety professionals hope to make a dent in engagement, mental well being, psychological safety, relationships, communication, and all the other things in safety that make the larger impacts, have we ever considered adjusting the way we approach people? Most importantly, have we ever adjusted our tone to get the outcome we were hoping for? The individual you are approaching may not be wearing a badge, and if they were, would it change the way you approach them? Remember the Covid approach bracelets? If you see the red bracelet on someone, you wouldn't be so eager to give them a hug and vice versa.

What if you found out you were the one that was agitated, angry or upset 45% of the time? Would you change your approach? Would you change your emotion? Would you change your emoji? The Amazon Halo Band can do that for you.

Improving relationships is at the heart of all things safety. Rosa Antonia Carillo has been working closely on the impact relationships have on safety, and this is one of the pillars. GOOD COMMUNICATION. Why not be prepared with the best tools available to improve the possibility of engagement from a colleague? Regardless if you use something like Rate Your State, emoji badges, experience boxes, or an Amazon Halo to track your tone, having the right approach to having a great conversation, which improves communication, which improves employee engagement, which improves psychological safety, which improves wellness, which improves safety. Ultimately, the business improves.

Emoji Safety isn't entirely about wearing emoji badges, it is more about providing and looking for clues with whatever tool you want to use to help you identify how you should approach another human to get the best out of your future conversations.

Tim is a Senior Consultant with SafeStart and a Director at Large for The American Society of Safety Professionals. He can be reached at [email protected].