Crafting the Serious Safety Message
There is no end to online “safety message lists.” We’ve all seen them and as a national motivational safety speaker, I would bet I’ve seen more than most.
In fact, there’s a safety message for just about everything from: “Immediately Report Faulty Equipment” to “Watch How You Lift” to “It’s Up to You to Attend Regular Safety Training.”
As a safety speaker and at one time, a production worker, I heard plenty of stories about laborers who were afraid to report lousy equipment to serious back injuries because guys tried to lift too much to supervisors overlooking safety training to meet deadlines. As a result, I saw awful accidents from bad equipment to workers winding up having major back surgery to major fines and lawsuits for lack of compliance.
The interconnection problem
Unfortunately, many companies and their major (or even small) projects, fall into a “them” and “us” mindset. To be fair, I never heard senior project managers or even CEOs ignore someone else’s misfortune. A tragic accident is just that: a terrible tragedy.
I have also learned that when one worker – or even supervisor suffers an injury, through indifference or workplace bullying, or neglect or the lack of a clear safety message, it is a guarantee that another accident will follow. Why? If there is no consistent safety messagemistakes will come around.
Yes, I understand that the job must get done. However, as a workplace safety speaker, Ithink it’s well past time for organizations to start crafting a safety message that everyoneunderstands.
It was just last year that two holiday-time accidents occurred at two different companiesthat illustrate my point.
In the first case, a laborer was told to move a heavy pallet he had no business moving by himself. His English was less than perfect, he was new to the job and “the boss” told him to hurry-it-up. No shock here, but he managed to slip a disc in his back. The incident cost the worker months of time in surgery and rehab, the company paid out thousands in claims and his boss was written up.
In the second accident the administrative assistant to the executive vice president of manufacturing, perhaps with one cup of eggnog too many, was “running” across a shop floor in heels with a giant plate of cookies. Her “reward” were multiple fractures of the lower leg, also resulting in a compensation case, obvious loss of work and a huge embarrassment to say the least. Why? She was the one responsible for arranging safety programs and materials!
In both cases, there was an interconnection problem. Safety must be communicated to every person in a company. Safety is everyone’s business, not a them and us business. The message may have to be adjusted or translated or reinforced but it must get conveyed. Is your company conveying it?
Crafting the serious safety message
The serious safety message isn’t something posted on a dusty poster or chain-link fence. It is a message of agreement that says we’re all in this together. From the CEO to the newly hired laborer, the message connects everyone and ensures we all get home to families and friends; we all look out for one another; we all care about one another. Anything less, is “them” and “us.”
To contact Mike Hourigan, Safety Motivational Speaker and Consultant, please call Mike today at (704) 875-3030 or fill out the form below.
