Characteristics of Companies Who Are Safety Champions

As a safety speaker I am often asked what companies with the best safety performance record have in common.

The most significant characteristic is that great successful companies are never satisfied with the status quo no matter how good they are. They constantly search for how they can improve their safety performance, product quality, customer service, profits, market share, etc.

Constant and Never Ending Improvement

Safety champions are the same. No matter how great their safety performance is they want to get better. One of my clients had done so well eliminating injuries on the job they had to get creative to improve. They realized safety off-the-job was a way they could continue to improve. They began tracking off-the-job injuries and worked to eliminate those also. A great concept as it conveys that safety is a personal value and the company actually cares about their employees.

Safety champions understand you can never cut back on safety efforts. It’s much like marketing. Even when you’re in first place, you must keep your efforts at a peak in order to stay there. Anheuser-Busch owns the major portion of the beer market, yet they notice when they cut back on their marketing or have a marketing campaign their sales change accordingly. They don’t just sit back satisfied with their number one status because they know if they ignore marketing their position will change. It’s no different when it comes to safety. Safety is not one of those things you achieve and then sit back and relax; you must constantly remain vigilant to make sure everyone gets home safely every day.

Sadly, I’ve seen this happen to some companies when it comes to safety. They used to have safety kick-offs, quarterly safety events, meetings, and outside speakers.

Suddenly, the leadership says, “Oh good! We’ve made it! We are now a safe company.”

Unfortunately, it’s only a matter of months before their safety performance turns around and, in many cases, a major incident occurs, costing human suffering and a lot of money.

They Never Lose Their Vision

Over the past 31 years as a safety motivational speaker, I’ve seen companies that lose their vision or value for safety. I’ve actually been able to predict companies that are headed for a major safety disaster. The first sign we notice is when my marketing person calls them to have me come back for the next employee meeting in my repertoire or a management communication effectiveness training. Their safety team informs her the company isn’t doing all the things they used to. The new leadership has not been doing kickoffs, all-hands meetings, and safety celebrations because they weren’t willing to support with the budget what the safety department needed to maintain their outstanding record. The symptom of leaders who don’t get it is when you notice all the nonrequired activities have disappeared, which if they had taken place, would indicate their commitment to safety. Of course, they still meet all the minimum requirements OSHA requires. Safety champions on the other hand, go above and beyond government or industry standards.

Meeting minimum requirements gets minimal results. Investing in a safety meeting for instance has multiple powerful effects. First, an all-hands meeting sends a powerful, unconscious message that safety is as important as an hour, half day, or full day of production. This is huge because employees sense that you’re committed to safety when you take the time to have them focus on their own safety.

Their Safety Teams Are Proud of Their Efforts

One other problem is those extra activities do not always show tangible or measurable results or the safety team doesn’t convey the impact they have had. I have had many people tell me stories of how they use something from one of my many different safety talks and it kept them or someone else from being injured. We don’t tell our success stories as much as we should. Also, we need to write them down, and report on them to keep track of them.

As kids, we were taught not to brag or blow our own horn. The fact is that is exactly what we must always do as safety professionals. If we don’t want to let management know our efforts are getting results, how are they going to know to keep them going?

Think about it – when it comes to safety what stands out? The injury reports which show improvement on our safety performance each year doesn’t tell the entire story. How many special, proactive safety activities did you or the employees do? How often did PPE or safety devices or procedures prevent an injury? How many successful safety shares have you made to the management?

They Bring In Professional Safety Speakers

Of course, one common characteristic of all my clients or the best of the best is they bring in an outside safety speaker, otherwise I wouldn’t be there. They allow me to come in and convey their safety message with a new voice.

On the way back to the airport with the CEO of one company I had just presented to, I heard him explain an interesting perspective. He said, “I’ve been telling them what you just told them for several years. The difference is they listen to you.”

I think it’s much more than that. The difference is I said it differently. Each message resonates with people in a different way. The big difference is when you’re bringing in a safety speaker with my communication background, the message is designed to be multi-faceted, so it is acted upon by the greatest number of people. Each speaker, whether in-house or outside, has their own style and technique, which reach a portion of any audience but not necessarily as many as they could have. An expert in communication can add layers to a presentation that allow it to reach more people. That is the wisdom of bringing in a professional communicator because we can get more change and action for the same time and money invested.

Some experiential safety speakers who tell their story of how they were injured actually have a negative result. Too often, people are moved by their emotional story, but they think to themselves I wouldn’t have made that mistake, so it won’t happen to me. I recently had a conversation with a client who told me they were pleased the injured worker’s life had worked out but was concerned that it sent a subliminal message that if I get hurt my life’s better than it was before.

A former Director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, George Abbey, a true safety champion changed the way safety statistics were evaluated. Prior to his being director, the safety department kept safety numbers only on the 10,000 employees who actually worked on the JSC site. Mr. Abbey believed the safety of the additional 6,000 plus employees who worked off-site were just as important. He had the safety department keep injury records for all 16,000 employees. This showed his commitment to safety and how much he wanted people to go home safely every day. I had the privilege of speaking at the center three days a month for an entire year as the opening speaker for his Safety Through Everyone’s Participation program. In the many conversations I had with him, I gained many safety insights and have shared them around the world. (If you are a fan of the space program, as I am, you might want to get a copy of the book, “The Astronaut Maker” by Michael Cassutt. It’s a great story of Mr. Abbey’s contribution to America’s space program.)

My career as a safety speaker grew primarily because safety champions like Mr. Abbey, saw my presentations help their employees take personal responsibility for their own safety as well as watching out for the safety of others. Safety champions realize the importance of outside voices reinforcing their message.

I’m sure you’ve heard the statement, “We have our own people who can deliver the same message, why should we bring in someone from outside our company?” An outside speaker can bring a new viewpoint and will reach people your in-house trainers or speakers haven’t connected with yet. It may be the same principle for truth but the way it’s delivered reaches different people. Safety champions understand the value of an outside perspective.

When you’re ready to join the hundreds of safety champions who have benefitted from my effective presentations please give Diane Weiss a call at 209-745-9419. Diane is my Director of Marketing and is an experienced meeting planner. She can help you select the best presentation based on your needs. Whichever one of my topics you choose I will customize it for your site.