Leading the Shift - J.R Earnest Glascock on Health & Safety
J.R. Earnest Glasscock Junior is the Vice President of Environmental, Health and Safety at The Heico Companies LLC. When I spoke to him in 2020, he was the Director of Corporate Safety at The Lane Construction Corporation.
He spoke candidly about trust in the construction business. Here is what he said:
There is a big difference between compliance and culture. Every company out there has a safety culture. To build a solid culture and commitment you need to get every part of the organization involved. That is key to safety success.
First, you have to ask yourself why do the employees work safe on the job. Every employee needs to take responsibility for their own individual safety. They need to know the purpose behind why they are actually working safe.
Why they want to work safe is the difference between compliance versus culture. Compliance is I have to do this. Culture means I want to do this. That to me is the key. While purpose is important, it obviously goes deeper than that.
The second point is you have to live by the core value of 'care for people’. That is a core value of our company. When a company genuinely cares for employees it sets that stage for that cultural commitment that every company strives for. When employees feel that the company really cares for them it is reciprocated. It really is a full circle.
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I think that companies need to ditch that safety is our number one priority approach. It's one of those buzz words but I would much rather hear a company talk about ‘Safety Always’. What I mean by that is priorities can change. Even if it's your number one priority there is the potential the safety priority could be pushed if you're behind schedule. So instead of a priority it needs to be a value. Values are unwavering. They don't change. It's something that you live each and every day. I'll also say that most companies have values. However for a value to be trusted it has to be lived. It's tangible when you see it lived out in the field each and every day. That’s what solidifies a world-class safety culture.
J.R. and I talked about how trust and safety are closely aligned. He shared that trust is aligned with these three core principles:
1: You have to care for the individual?
2. You have to see value in the person and add value to the person
3. Your words and actions must align.