When was the last time you thought about your workplace safety strategy? I don’t mean the last time you checked in on key performance indicators (KPI) or addressed a one-off issue. I mean the last time you set aside time to think about whether the workplace safety strategy you have in place today is serving the current needs of your organization.
If it’s been a while, I recommend spending a few minutes thinking about the following five questions. They’ll help you take a step back to verify that you’re doing what it takes to create a safe environment for your workers.
1. Are you measuring your program with the right KPIs?
It’s an easy trap to fall into: you’re hitting all your KPIs, so your safety program must be on track, right? Well, yes—if your program is currently measuring the right things. Every so often, it’s worth checking in to verify that the metrics you use to track your safety program:
- Align with your workplace’s safety objectives. Are you aiming to be merely OSHA-compliant, or is worker safety your top priority? If it’s the latter, you may need to measure more than what OSHA requires—near misses, for example. These are great indicators of likely future incidents. Tracking and remediating them is an excellent way to improve the overall safety of your workplace.
- Are SMART, meaning they’re Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
- Contain a mix of leading and lagging indicators. “Days without incident” is a great metric to track, but it won’t tell you ahead of time whether you need to make changes. The best safety programs include both leading indicators (like completion of worksite-specific training modules) and lagging ones.
Another way to think about your KPIs: are you measuring the things that are most likely to give you insight into the state of your safety program and lead to a culture of safety, or are you measuring the things that are easiest to measure?
2. Do your chosen KPIs lead to any unintended consequences?
Even the best-intended policies can have unintended consequences.
“Days without incident,” for example, can be a galvanizing force for large organizations. But it might also inadvertently put pressure on people to underreport incidents so they don’t break your streak.
Or maybe you’re having a competition among teams to see who can complete the most training modules. Could this incentivize workers to rush through material rather than spend the time necessary to absorb key takeaways?
To be clear, there’s no “perfect” way to measure or incentivize workplace safety. The goal of considering unintended consequences is to recognize where they might exist and mitigate them to the extent possible. In some cases, that may mean choosing to measure safety with different metrics. In others, it might simply mean communicating differently so that you stay on track for your big-picture goal of keeping your workers safer.
3. How will you implement and operate your program on an ongoing basis?
I’ve seen plenty of theoretically solid safety plans that exist, unfortunately, exclusively in the realm of theory. If your organization’s safety plan is restricted to a dusty binder on a shelf somewhere, it’s probably not actually doing your workers much good.
Creating a safety plan is only the first part of the work of creating a safer workplace. It’s also important to create—and execute—a roadmap for implementing and operating your plan.
Today, that’s easier than it used to be, thanks to digital tools that literally put essential information and resources in every worker’s pocket. For example, a worker unfamiliar with protocol for handling or disposing of a chemical they don’t use very often can pull out their phone, look in a digital library of safety sheets, and proceed accordingly.
That’s a much more efficient way of operating than asking the worker to dig out a binder of safety sheets, page through until they find the right one, memorize the information, and go back to their workstation to implement proper protocol.
And because digital methods are more efficient, workers are more likely to engage with digital safety materials consistently, which leads to a safer workplace. If you haven’t yet considered upgrading to digital tools to help you implement and operate your safety program, today is a great time to start.
4. Are employees engaged with your safety program?
Employee engagement manifests in multiple ways:
- Employees play an active role in creating and maintaining workplace safety. Maybe this means employees are empowered to reorder PPE when they notice supplies are running low at a given workstation. It might also look like employees who report near misses as well as actual incidents because they can do so quickly and easily without disrupting their work.
- Employees are empowered to improve workplace safety. For example, employees feel comfortable suggesting changes in policies or procedures to improve their safety or recommending a team review a specific training module before working with a less-familiar machine.
- Employees are empowered to protect themselves and their coworkers. This looks like, among other things, employees who take the time necessary to work safely and employees who identify unsafe practices when they crop up.
Making safety tools and resources available digitally facilitates all of these. Employees who can access such resources from mobile devices have a much lower barrier to engage with them than those who must seek out physical documentation and forms.
5. How are you improving your safety program on an ongoing basis?
OSHA requires that employers monitor program shortcomings and identify opportunities to improve. In some cases, a program that’s not working may be worse than none at all because it can create a false sense of having “checked the box.”
It’s worth scheduling regular check-ins to assess your safety program: review performance as indicated by your KPIs, assess whether you’re tracking the right KPIs, and get feedback from various stakeholders around your organization.
Making changes to a safety program is not an admission that you’ve failed in some way; rather, it’s an acknowledgement that you’re operating in a dynamic context that you’ll have to adapt to over and over.
Working toward a culture of safety
Safety is the foundation for everything else. If workers aren’t safe, you can’t expect them to do their jobs. Leaders seeking to create a culture of safety—and I would argue that all leaders should aim to do this—should consider their safety strategy a living thing that requires ongoing nurturing, attention, and adjustment.
When we shift the mindset of “set it and forget it” to one where safety is woven into every part of the fabric of an organization, we set the stage for ongoing productivity and profitability.
Deren Boyd is the SVP for New Markets at KPA. KPA provides Environment, Health & Safety (EHS), and Workforce Compliance software and services for a wide range of businesses. KPA solutions help clients identify, remedy, and prevent workplace safety and compliance problems across their entire enterprise. The combination of KPA’s software, EHS consulting services, and award-winning training content helps organizations minimize risk so they can focus on what’s important—their core business. For over 30 years, KPA has helped 10,000 + clients achieve regulatory compliance, protect assets, and retain top talent.