Map Your Strategy for Continuous Safety Improvement

• Obtain top management commitment. Top managers must be on board. If they are not, safety and health will compete against core business issues such as production and profitability, a battle that will almost always be lost. Showing the costs to the organization in terms of dollars (direct and indirect costs of accidents) that are being lost, and the organizational costs (fear, lack of trust, feeling of being used, etc.) can be compelling reasons for doing something different.

• Build "buy-in." Build an alliance or partnership between management, your union (if one exists), and employees. A safety and health change process can very effectively drive change and bring an organization together due to the ability to get buy-in from all levels. This stems from the fact that most people place a high personal value on their own safety. They view the change efforts as things that are truly being done for them.

• Build trust. Trust is a critical part of accepting change. Trust will grow as different levels within the organization work together and begin to see success.

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• Bench mark. In order to get where you want to go, it is essential to know where you’re starting from. Use perception surveys to measure the strengths and weaknesses of your safety culture. Look at issues that surface as symptoms of larger system failures. 

• Train. Training of management/supervisory staff, union leadership (if present), safety and health committee members, and a representative number of hourly employees is also required. This may include both safety and health training and any needed management, team building, hazard recognition, or communication training. This provides you with a core group of people to draw upon as resources and also gets key personnel on board with needed changes.

• Establish a steering committee. The committee should be made up of management, employees, union (if present), and safety staff. This group’s purpose is to facilitate, support, and direct the change processes. This will provide overall guidance and direction and avoid duplication of efforts. To be effective, the group must have the authority to get things done.

• Develop a safety vision that includes key policies, goals, measures, and strategic and operational plans. These policies provide guidance and serve as a reality check to be sure that decisions you’re about to make support rather than detract from your improvement process

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• Align the organization by establishing a shared vision of safety and health goals and objectives versus production. Upper management must be willing to support by providing resources (time) and holding managers and supervisors accountable for doing the same. The entire management and supervisory staff needs to set the example and lead the change. It’s more about leadership than management.

• Define specific roles and responsibilities for safety and health at all levels of the organization. Safety and health must be viewed as everyone’s responsibility. Clearly spell out how the organization deals with competing pressures and priorities—for example, production versus safety and health.

• Develop a system of accountability for all levels of the organization. Everyone must play by the same rules and be held accountable for their areas of responsibility. The sign of a strong culture is when the individuals hold themselves accountable.

• Develop an ongoing measurement and feedback system. Drive the system with upstream activity measures that encourage positive change. Examples include the number of hazards reported or corrected, number of inspections, number of equipment checks, number of JSAs completed, prestart-up reviews conducted, etc.

• Develop policies for recognition, rewards, incentives, and ceremonies. Reward employees for doing the right things and encourage participation in the upstream activities. Continually reevaluate these policies to ensure their effectiveness and to ensure that they do not become entitlement programs.

• Provide awareness training and kick-off for all employees. It’s not enough for a part of the organization to be involved and know about the change and improvement effort. The entire site needs to know and be involved in some manner. A kick-off celebration can be used to announce "It’s a new day," and seek buy-in for any new procedures and programs.

• Implement process changes via involvement of management, union (if one is present) and employees using a "Plan To Act" process such as Total Quality Management (TQM).

• Continually measure performance, communicate results, and celebrate successes. Publicizing results is very important to sustaining efforts and keeping everyone motivated. Everyone needs to be updated throughout the process. Everyone needs to have a voice, otherwise, they will be reluctant to buy-in. A system can be as simple as using current meetings, a bulletin board, or a comment box.

• Provide ongoing support. Reinforcement, feedback, reassessment, mid-course corrections, and on-going training is vital to sustaining continuous improvement.