Is Safety Part of Your Company Culture?
As a business coach for contractors, I hear many stories of employees getting injured at work – some minor and some major. After an injury occurs, business owners usually begin to take safety seriously. The purpose of this blog is to bring safety to the spotlight in your busiest season. You’re sending your employees all over town, they’re using all types of equipment and they’re often very high in the air.
Ask yourself, does my company have a safety culture? Consider the following points:
- Is safety training included in your new hire orientations? This is a must. On day one, employees should be informed of your safety standards. Consider giving them a test to ensure it sticks.
- Incorporate safety risks and concerns into every job huddle.
- Make safety training a consistent practice, with a list of topics and a schedule. Involve your employees in delivering the training. This will increase buy-in. Assign a safety “Captain” for every crew, this individual doesn’t have to be the crew leader. The safety captain should identify safety concerns, provide tailgate safety training, and bring the safety manual alive.
- Start a job-site safety picture contest. Challenge your crews to send in pictures of safe work practices on their worksite. Give a monthly award for the best one.
- Establish company goals around the number of days without an injury and/or lost time.
- Don’t skip the reference checks during the hiring process. We’ve experienced the “serial” workers, comp employees. They know how to work the system. Don’t be their next victim.
- Ask your employees what four people in their life would be most impacted if they got hurt. Make them write it down. This makes it personal.
- Establish a safety audit process with a scoring system. We suggest a combination of self-audits and surprise audits. Publically praise the best scores.
Safety culture is a caring culture. It is also a professional culture. Please make safety a priority this summer.
All the Best-
Brian Nolan