Summary: Keeping a project on time, on budget as well as being ever conscious of safety can be quite a juggling act and as much as one hates to admit it sometimes things can be overlooked.
I spoke with Spike Edwards a HSE culture and integration specialist to gain an insight to his global experience on what managers should avoid so as to achieve quicker “buy in” on projects that are safer, have higher operational performance and are ultimately more profitable.
Here, are a few tips.
1. Measure Twice – Teach Once
The key to the success of any “world-class” safety / HSE campaign is sustainability.
So when it is time to check your workforces competency on daily routines such as risk management assessments, pretour / shift meetings, talk box meetings or any other assessed criteria, gauge it over a reasonable period so as to watch for skill drop off.
“Trust but verify”.
2. Near Missing the OpportunitiesSo many people hide or do not clearly define what is a “Near Miss” or “Near Hit” get it on paper, make it known and collect them. That is the easy bit.
Then have a Knowledge Management System that puts the learning’s into the hands of everybody in your organisation. If yours does not, “you do not have a system”.
3. Wake up your Recruiting and Training Departments
A safety culture is a living breathing entity. For every new personality or culture that comes on site the culture alters to some degree, either for the better or the worse.
Get both your HR and training departments involved in the selection and training of the workforce instead of just filling in the holes as they appear.
“An ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure”.
4. Not Developing Leaders or Having a Succession Plan
This goes hand in hand with the previous topic. How many times have we watched a significant supervisor who is brilliant at their job, trained exactly how the organisation wants them to be and yet have them sitting in the same position for years gathering nothing but dust.
Then when a position at the next level comes about they go outside and hire a new person before even identifying someone in your own organisation.
Do your organisation a favour conduct leadership development, have a succession plan and let your workforce know, not necessarily the details but the intent and purpose of that plan.
5. Biting Off Too Much – Too Soon
As a Behavioural Based Safety (BBS) consultant, managers constantly ask me “why is their HSE program or business not improving or integrating as well or as fast as they would like.
“The easiest answer, it is like trying to coach a community grade footballer at a national championship level once. Then expecting him, to always, play at that level as well as maintaining it forever.
People can only build on the skills their already know.
6. Build Relationships and Culture Will Come
One of the skills I was taught by some of the best leaders on the planet was to go into an organisation and within an extraordinarily short amount of time identify if the culture is “doing what it says it is doing” and determine the longevity of that environment.
The first place to look in any cultural assessment is at the necessary relationships within the company and are they functioning properly. The more critical the position the greater the need for relationships to be in place. Remember, to have an organisation arrive at a “world class safety culture” it requires nurturing along the way.
7. Not Realizing When One Needs Assistance
As managers, we have all been tasked to juggle many and varied portfolio’s. The people who I have worked beside that have been outstanding managers, have been the ones that realised what they were skilled at and what they were not then using their own resources sort leadership development.
Then they had the courage to take the next step. That is to ask for a review or an evaluation or a program that filled the gaps for their department or organisation. Most importantly, ensuring that it is inline with the organisations’ culture.
8. Remember: “There is no proprietary in safety only priority, so that all can benefit – share it”. (Spike Edwards)
Copyright (c) 2012 John Porter
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