Leading and Owning Safety; How can All Levels of Management influence safety in an organisation

With the 2022 fatality rates in Singapore increasing by the week! There has been new initiatives and old initiatives rekindled and put into play. We continuously hear that an injury-free workplace demands strong leadership. A leader is one who is able to influence and guide individuals, teams or an organisation. In an organisation, safety leadership refers to the manager(s) and/or the owner (s), who will be able to guide its employees to work towards a common safety goal, enabling each individual then to be their own ‘safety leader’. But there seems to be a huge gap in what is said and written to what is done and implemented.??

Leadership Roles

Leaders (Directors, Owners, CEO’s) in an organisation have many roles to play, in todays business climate of internal and external threats, supply chain issues, man power and human resource challenges, environmental and social responsibility, yet without a human being doing the work, there would be none of these challenges, issues to consider. As basically you would not have a operational business. From a one man/woman band (sole entrepreneur) to a SME to a MNC the key role of the leader must be to ensure the safety of their employees.

This should be done positively, proactively with the goal to prevent injuries and loss of life. Afterall, an organisation’s safety outcome/metric is measured by workplace accidents, injuries, or fatalities. Just on workplace injuries alone, Singapore’s 2021 National WSH statistics reported 21,539 minor injuries in 2021. This equates to 653 per 100,000 workers, resulting in four or more days of medical leave. While 2022 is certainly looking at not being a better year for such measurements.

Does safety leadership style’s affect the employees’ safety behaviours?

This refers to whether employees are comfortable asking for help, providing feedback or able to challenge safety lapses without having to face negative stigma from the very leaders who need to hear this feedback or fellow employees. Leaders should ensure that they are able to foster a work place culture in their employees with their leadership style.?Leaders must ‘walk the talk’ and not just ‘dictate’ via internal email broadcast or safety bulletins. A visionary leader will know what safety should be for the organisation and be able to communicate it with positivity, engagement, meaning and with commitment to its employees. It is also important that employees respect the person’s credibility and integrity in his/her expertise in safety. The area of respect for the leader, is often one that fails. Respect is not ‘in the box’ when you become a leader, respect is earned, and often over a long period of time.

Most organisations would have safety protocols clearly stated in their company’s induction policies. Ideally, when it is communicated to employees with clear expectations, it eases the safety adoption onboarding process. It is essential to learn from industry or past organisational incidents, employees’ feedback on improvements, and act with best practices to improve on an organisation’s safety. With defined expectations, organisations should also offer a supportive environment, and resources such as suitable training to all levels of leadership to ensure they can address risks / hazards and maximise their safety leadership efforts.

The Leadership Style is not just about 'safety', it is about empowering the team to embed a culture of business within the organisation that makes the organisation a great place to be.

So what does all this mean, OWNERSHIP?

Senior Leaders with in all businesses must take OWNERSHIP of all aspects of the business, taking ownership of safety is paramount to ensure change in the organisation that results in a safe place to work and growth and positivity for the business. Ownership means being involved, being present, having the empathy and humility and demonstrate you care. Know what the legal requirement is to ensure a safe place at work and aspire to higher standards. Empower your team to take ownership and to engage directly with you.?

Family at Work; Family at Home

All business owners, leaders have families, spouses, children, parents, you would not let anyone of them be in an unsafe environment, so why allow your workforce and employees to do so. There can be as many initiatives as possible, incentives, slogans, etc industries can make up and repeatedly use. It is only you as the leader taking ownership of the safety in the workplace and empowering your team to do so too, that will establish a mindset change in how safety is seen, and established to prevent all workplace incidents and fatalities.

?( https://www.tal.sg/wshc/media/announcements/2022/2021-national-wsh-statistics#)

Darren Brunton

A.R.C.T.I.C Principles for Leadership and Coaching

A- Adaptable: R- Resourceful: C- Commitment: T- Tenacity: I- Integrity: C- Courage?