Get REAL About Risk Taking
On any given job it is typical to hear safety people and supervisors bemoan the “stupid, careless” employees that keep getting hurt in the workplace. The solution often is to “weed out” the more “accident prone” employees.
The problem with this method is that the new employees often seem to be no different and the cycle goes on.
People take risks, not because they lack intelligence are careless or want to get hurt. They take risks because they truly believe that nothing bad will happen to them by doing so.
Here are some simple truths to ponder:
1. All humans have some degree of risk taking potential.
Can you honestly tell me you never exceeded the speed limit or coasted through a stop sign?
2. The more times you take a risk, the less you believe you will be hurt.
Were you scared the first time you climbed on a roof or a really tall extension ladder? How about the 50th time? The only thing that changed was your perception. The risk stayed the same.
3. If a task is done frequently, it is normal human behavior to look for a way to take shortcuts to do the task.
If we allow the shortcut to continue it becomes the new procedure over time and will be eventually taught as the way to do the job. We actually reward the risk taking sometimes by praising the employee for their increased productivity.
4. Discipline/punishment will only stop the behavior while you are watching; it won’t change the way they do the job.
To change behavior long term it must modeled by management and praised/rewarded. We (management) must set the example and lead by our behavior.
5. Employees will do what they think their immediate supervisor wants.
If the boss does not wear PPE, the employee won’t either. If they think the boss wants them to take shortcuts to “get er done”, they will.
6. How much risk taking is considered acceptable in your workplace is influenced by the frequency of the production/safety messages received.
Managers are often shocked to find out their employees truly believe that management wants them to do “whatever it takes” to get the job done. After all, the manager attended last months safety meeting and told them that safety is number one!
7. Our cultural background can make us more likely to take risks.
Examples of this can be the macho construction culture, specific trades, i.e. ironworkers or new immigrants who come from a non-safety culture.
O, K. so now I know that my employees are all likely to take more risk than I want them to in the workplace. What can I do to change that? Well, first you must convince the employee what is expected of him/her in this workplace. Here are some ways to do that:
1. Provide an effective, “hands on”, interactive new hire orientation that clearly communicates the expectations. Sticking a videotape in the TV or handing them a list of rules will not do the job. A management representative must verbalize and impress on the employee what behavior the company truly wants. By management, I mean someone other than safety. Safety people are expected to talk about safety. What matters is what do the managers want.
2. Reward what you want repeated. Focus on observing for safe behavior rather than unsafe behavior. This is more difficult than it sounds and you will need to train employees and supervisors in this technique.
3. Train supervisors in leadership for safety. This should include how to provide effective feedback and reinforcement. If leaders are not modeling the behavior you want, employees will not do it either.
4. Dramatically increase safety communications. Here is a test you might want to use to determine what messages are being received in your workplace: Plan to spend at least a half-day in the work environment. Bring a clipboard. Announce to everyone you are there just to observe and learn more about the way the work is done or count the number of concrete trucks arriving, etc. Plan to observe only, no corrections or discipline. (If something needs immediate attention have someone else tend to it.) On your clipboard, draw a line dividing a piece of paper in half. Every time you hear a message that relates to safety put a checkmark on one side of the line. Every time you hear a message that relates to production put a checkmark on the other side of the line.
Some companies require that no meeting of three or more employees take place without starting the meeting with safety topics. In the beginning, it is necessary to force the communication to the point that it seems overdone. It won’t be. The messages only count if they come from production, not safety staff.
5. Develop an effective root cause process. In order to have a strong safety culture, you must determine the root cause of unsafe behavior and fix the system that is allowing or even encouraging unacceptable risk taking. Very few investigations truly determine the root cause. This will be the subject of another article.
6. Work to gain employee involvement in safety. If all information only flows downhill, we lose the most valuable nuggets of knowledge available. If you want to know what is wrong with your system, you have to ask employees and be willing to listen to what they have to say.
7. Teach supervisors how to manage employees of diverse cultural backgrounds. Have your supervisors been trained to understand the nature of cultural differences and it’s impact on behavior? Have they been taught how to effectively manage this workforce? Most often, we find someone became a supervisor without ever receiving any training or education in how to manage.
Remember that no one wants to come to work to get hurt or believes that they will be the one to get hurt. The perception of whether or not something is risky behavior is often not grounded in reality, but rather the result of REAL people, reacting to the REAL world around them.
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