Safety Speaker Tip – Selecting Safety Team Members

Safety Speaker Tip – Selecting Your Team

As a safety speaker, I have the privilege of working with some great safety teams. If you have employees voluntarily serve on a site safety team, how do you select and recruit them?

First, let’s look at selecting your team. Do you want people who will support you? Do you want people who might challenge you? There are many factors to consider and you are the best person to make those decisions. I believe you want people who will support the group’s decisions and be a team player.

Sometimes, you can select individuals you want to win over as safety champions. The strategy is that it is more difficult to not care about safety if you are on the safety team.

Talents and Skills

Think about the talents and skill sets you want involved on your team. Do you have people in your workforce who are creative, funny (make sure they can be appropriate), skilled at video editing, artists, musicians, good at logistics? The more talent you involve the better your team will be.

Be inclusive – have people from each job category or department, leadership, union and non-union, experienced or seasoned workers and new hires.

Aim high – think of the people you want. Never say no for someone without asking them. A great example was years ago when I was serving on our Rotary Club’s presidential nominating committee. As we went over the list of eligible candidates we all agreed on our first choice. We also knew this person was very busy and on several other committees and boards in our community. Everyone said this person wouldn’t say yes so we should go ahead with our second choice. I suggested we should go ahead and ask them and let them say no if they chose.

Two of us met with the person at their office and asked them to serve. They quickly responded yes. They explained being Rotary Club President was the one volunteer job in town they wanted the most. That person was a great president and did a great job.

Always ask and never say no on someone’s behalf that you know is just right for the job.

Another tip – select a first, second, and third choice for each spot you are trying to fill. That way if the person does say no you always have an equally good choice ready.

How to Ask Them

Now, that you know who you want what is the best way to ask them? My experience is you are best going with at least two or three people to ask. There are several reasons to do this. First, it’s harder to say no to two or three people than to one.

Second, they are committing to do the job to the three of you. That strengthens the commitment. If you want to put on some positive pressure make one of the three people the person’s immediate supervisor. This gives their endorsement to the job and they are giving the person permission to add this to their workload. Be careful on this one so you don’t apply too much pressure.

Another important tip – never ask for safety volunteers out loud at a group meeting. As a safety speaker, I have seen this many times. Several bad things can happen. Worst is no one volunteers, which sends the subliminal peer pressure message not to volunteer. Second big problem is when someone you don’t want actually volunteers in public. You then are stuck with them or have an embarrassing situation.

Now, that you have your team, you can use this same process if you need to add individuals in the future.

Recognizing Your Team
Safety teams need to be appreciated. Team identity is also nice to create. Matching shirts with the company or safety team logo create unity and cause the team members to stand out. You can go out to dinner as a team. Introduce your team at safety events. Another great way of recognizing safety team members is to send letters of appreciation for the great job they are doing to their supervisors and other leaders above them. A note or personal thank you from the plant site manager is shows appreciation for their time and effort.

Solutions For Your Safety Challenges
When you need solutions for your safety challenges give Diane Weiss a call at 209-745-9419 and bring John to your site to discover injury preventing solutions. You can email her at diane@drebinger.com
Until next week,
I’ll be, “Watching Out For Everyone’s Safety™”
John
© 2016 John Drebinger Presentations
Permission to use granted when credited and contact information included. www.drebinger.com +1 209.745.9419