National Safety Month – Week 3 Building a Safety Culture part 2

Each year, the National Safety Council (NSC) promotes June as National Safety Month. Now, more than ever, safety is crucial both at work and at home.

This year, NSC will discuss one of these topics each week throughout June:

  • Mental Health
  • Ergonomics
  • Building a Safety Culture
  • Driving

The focus of Week 3 is Building a Safety Culture.

The following are excerpts from an article written by Jim Spigener, Chief Client Officer for DEKRA, titled …

Safety Leadership:

Seven practices of great safety leaders

To be a great safety leader, you need to care deeply about your people and regularly demonstrate the value of safety through your actions.

For a leader to be willing to do the things that are necessary to transform the organization, he or she must take safety personally. Obviously, leaders want high performance and profit. When it comes to safety, however, a leader has to make decisions based on how it affects the well-being of his or her people.

We have identified seven practices that every leader needs to adopt to “walk the walk” when it comes to safety:

Vision. Leaders must have the ability to “see” what safety excellence looks like and a capability to articulate it throughout the organization.

Collaboration. Effective leaders work well with employees, promote cooperation and collaboration, actively seek input from people on issues that affect them, and encourage others to implement their decisions to improve safety.

Credibility. This requires a willingness to admit mistakes and advocate the safety interests of everyone, from managers to the front line.

Communication. Safety leaders need to be talking about safety every time they speak.

Action orientation. Safety leaders need to show urgency even in the absence of incidents to show they’re serious about achieving results.

Feedback and recognition. Leaders need honest and accurate feedback on the effect of their behaviors to help them ensure consistency between their passion for people and the message employees receive based on their actions.

Accountability. An effective leader gives workers a fair appraisal of their safety efforts and results, clearly communicates individual roles in the safety effort, and fosters the sense that every person is responsible for safety throughout the organization.

Leaders in world-class safety organizations can serve as role models in this effort. It all starts with a personal commitment to workers first, not last.

You may access the entire article by clicking here.

The National Safety Council is the nation’s leading non-profit safety advocate and focuses on saving lives and preventing injuries, from the workplace to anyplace. You may become a member of NSC and/or learn more by visiting www.nsc.org.