June 1-8 , SAFETY ENGAGEMENT WEEK
In recognition of National Safety Month, we would like to share tips and strategies for this week's topic as designated by the National Safety Council (NSC) - Safety Engagement.
One of management's biggest challenges in the workplace can be driving employee engagement and affecting internal changes. When it comes to Environmental, Health & Safety (EHS), those challenges are often confounded by employee perceptions related to EHS. Employees can often view EHS or safety requirements in general as "time wasters" or necessary annoyances above and beyond their normal day-to-day job-specific duties. A good manager however will find ways to drive engagement on the EHS front and effectively communicate the value and benefit of company EHS programs. If created and implemented properly, EHS programs in the workplace can serve to enhance employee's day-to-day experience and make the workplace a safer and more enjoyable experience for all those that work there.
Here are some real-world tips and strategies that we have seen demonstrated success with. These strategies can help you drive engagement & communicate the value of your EHS program:?
- Get people involved, ask for their opinions, concerns, praises, etc. What do the like about the EHS program? What drives them crazy and distracts them from their job duties? Are there things they think are unsafe at work? Do they have suggestions on how EHS should be handled or a better way to involve employees? This feedback loop can be created? via anonymous post it note boards, EHS note drop boxes, etc. Once employees feel that they have a voice, they are much more likely to be engaged AND to stay engaged if they see real world changes in the workplace.
- Have a formal EHS reporting procedure, drive home the importance of communicating EHS concerns, near misses, EHS suggestions via a documented system. At first, employees may over communicate, but too much communication is better than none at all. The goal here is for employees' voices to be heard and for everyone to understand that they play a role in the sites overall condition and more importantly, that they can effect change in the workplace. Again, when employees feel included in EHS efforts and understand that their opinions and concerns are being heard and acted on, higher engagement is the result.
- Hold All-Employee EHS meetings to communicate strategies and goals, discuss progress and review employees concerns or praise gathered from the anonymous feedback loop or documented reporting (near misses, safety observations, etc.) previously mentioned. Again, when employees realize that their voices are being heard, they are much more likely to stay engaged and be more involved.
- Form a Safety Committee and dictate membership across all functional groups.? Cross-function engagement during EHS meetings will also help to foster idea-sharing, process improvement, as well as instilling and developing EHS culture across your entire organization. Use feedback and input from all functional groups to set EHS performance goals and metrics for gauging EHS performance. In hearing from all of your different functional group leaders in setting goals and performance metrics, you will have a much better sense as a manager in terms of how realistic and obtainable those goals and objectives may be. In addition, if your functional group leaders and managerial team were involved in setting and documenting those goals and objectives, they are much more likely to strive for obtaining or exceeding those goals, hence further driving your employee engagement!
- Demonstrate managerial leadership on the EHS front. Make it clear to all staff that EHS expectations are built from the top down.? Upper management must demonstrate not only though policies and procedures, but also through their actions. Have your upper management assist in drafting an EHS credo or mission statement and have them sign off on it. Make that policy and upper management buy-in visible to all employees. Upper management must be engaged in EHS as well if the expectation is for all other employees to be engaged. Lead by example!?
?If you would like any further guidance regarding EHS program development or driving employee engagement to effect culture change in the workplace, CES is here to advise and support you.
