In the safest workplaces, supervisors aren’t just safety rule enforcers, they’re also safety role models.
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Employees’ behavior on the job is significantly influenced by the way their supervisors think and act about workplace safety. Studies show that supervisors’ effectiveness in accident prevention is dependent on the behavior they model for employees.
If workers believe that supervisors are strongly committed to safety, they will be, too. Conversely, if supervisors are sloppy about safety, the workers they supervise are likely to be as well.
Showing a strong commitment and modeling good, safe behavior involve many issues for your supervisors, including:
- Establishing safety as a priority for all jobs
- Making safety-minded decisions
- Providing all the necessary safety equipment and motivating employees to use it
- Investigating accidents thoroughly and correcting the problems they uncover
- Inspecting the work areas they supervise routinely and promptly eliminating hazards
- Facilitating necessary employee safety and health training
- Working with employees and getting them involved in solving problems and improving workplace safety
- Welcoming employee suggestions for making the job safer
- Listening earnestly when employees complain about hazards and taking action to correct them
Your front-line supervisors are the critical linchpins in the success of your safety program. But are supervisors performing their day-to-day safety role effectively? BLR’s upcoming live webinar will help you help them create a safer workplace. Click here for details.
Talking Up Safety
Safety role models also talk about safety—a lot. Encourage your supervisors to take every opportunity to provide feedback and communicate information about safety to employees—not just at weekly safety meetings or during training sessions, but every day.
For example, if a supervisor is walking through a work area and sees employees wearing required PPE and following safety procedures, he or she should stop for a minute and praise the crew for being safety-minded.
Following the Rules
Modeling safe behavior also means that supervisors have to follow all the safety rules themselves. "Do as I say, not as I do" doesn’t work on the job any more than it does at home. Remember that employees can imitate unsafe behavior just as easily as they can emulate safe behavior.
So if, for example, workers see a supervisor walking through an area where eye protection is required and the supervisor isn’t wearing safety glasses, employees are likely to pick up on the negative safety message and figure they don’t have to wear required PPE either. Or, if a supervisor clears a jammed machine without turning it off, even though the rule says the machine should be shut down first, employees are likely to imitate the unsafe, rather than the safe, behavior in the future.
Join us on March 11 for an in-depth webinar in which our speaker, a seasoned safety professional, will help you evaluate and improve your strategies for providing supervisors with the tools that they need to successfully "supervise safety." Learn More.
Build Supervisor Commitment
If your front-line supervisors are not fully committed to ensuring a safe environment or aren’t properly trained on how to do it, your safety program will have limited success. This truth applies in the same way as it does for success in quality and production. The supervisor is the critical linchpin.
In the last few years OSHA has more vigorously prosecuted companies and supervisors for violations of OSHA regulations. Thus, it’s clear that the supervisor’s role is especially critical to successful day-to-day safety performance and ensuring that supervisors have as top priorities a clear understanding of their safety responsibilities, the necessary tools (including management support) to be successful, and the needed training for superior performance.
Join us for an in-depth webinar on March 11. Our presenter, a seasoned safety professional, has helped many companies evaluate and significantly improve their strategies for providing supervisors with the tools that they need to successfully “supervise safety."
You and your colleagues will learn:
- The supervisor’s role in ensuring compliance with a safety program as outlined by OSHA
- How to convince senior management to provide support for a formal supervisory safety training process
- How to evaluate and assess the existing role that supervisors are playing in your safety program so you can identify areas for improvement
- Tips on how to develop a supervisory safety process curriculum, including must-have topics to include
- How to coach supervisors in providing routine and constructive information and feedback to crew members
- How a supervisor can be the best trainer in the area of safety
- The critical tools needed to help a supervisor achieve success, such as clear guidance on coaching, mentoring, rewarding, and when necessary, disciplining employees
- The support and assistance you should be at the ready to provide to supervisors
- Why and how the supervisor must demonstrate safety through the shift and set an example for others
- Why a "coach/mentor" approach that yields long-term benefits and more-positive results is superior to a "cop" approach
- The key components to include in a comprehensive supervisor safety training program
- How to track implementation, performance, and success of the programs that you have put in place
- Methods for identifying and evaluating third-party resources to help you develop a successful supervisor safety program
Your Speaker
Bill Blake has 24 years of experience teaching safety and heavy equipment training, 11 years working for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power as an Operations/Maintenance trainer, and 14 years of experience as an independent General Industry/Construction & Heavy Equipment Safety Consultant/Instructor. Mr. Blake is an authorized General Industry & Construction OSHA instructor. He also holds numerous certificates and authorizations to conduct safety training on the following topics: Heavy Equipment, Confined Space, HAZWOPER, and Respiratory and Electrical Safety.
For the last 14 years Mr. Blake has been consulting and providing services as a program developer and teacher of general industry safety and heavy equipment operations. He has instructed extensively throughout the Greater Los Angeles area. Mr. Blake has consulted and provided trainings for the city of Long Beach, National Safety Council, Association of Movie and Television Producers, Warner Brothers Studio, Paramount Studios, City of Los Angeles Departments of Sanitation, Recreation & Parks, General Services, Airport and Harbors, and British Petroleum Refineries and Pipeline.
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