Effective Management Systems
Whenever effective safety management systems are brought up on discussion boards on networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook, terms such as employee accountability, commitment from management and employee engagement are often the crux of the discussion. These terms are usually discussed very matter-of-fact as if a singular definition exists and can be applied to every organization. My experience has shown me that establishing and cultivating these three important concepts; employee accountability, commitment from management and employee engagement; is different in each organization due to cultural factors, personal beliefs and business management “styles”.
Employee accountability is the general concept that employees have accountability for the choices or decisions they make. How a business is managed and the current culture “on-the-floor” dictate what employee accountability means within an organization. A “work team” operational environment will have different accountability traits then a top-down organization where clear expectations and direction are issued. These factors also dictate how employee accountability needs to be cultured to establish the necessary commitment for an effective safety management system.
The keys to establishing employee accountability, in any organization, are an expectation to work safe and clear understanding by employees the difference between working safe and being at-risk for injury. How and what this will exactly mean depends on the factors mentioned above, establishing what is safe and an expectation to work safe will allow employees to be accountable for themselves and accept consequences when not meeting the expectation to work safe.
Management commitment can best be described as the expectation from the highest level of management that nobody should ever be injured on the job, and “we” need to do whatever is reasonably necessary. The fact “should” and “reasonably” are in the description demonstrates the variation in management commitment between organizations….and also leads to the discussions. Too often, people expect an organization to take a management stance that is not reasonable for the current state of the organization and criticize the “lack of management commitment”. You need to work within the current state of an organization to cultivate a future state where less and less is considered un-reasonable.
Employee engagement in the safety process can take many forms; from safety committee membership to basic hazard reporting or safety suggestion submission. Essential to establishing employee engagement is meeting employees at their ability and level of desire. The goal is to engage as many employees as possible, and to “delegate” as much down as capabilities allow. You need to engage as close to 100% as possible, but you also need to make sure you engage employees at a level that matches their desire and ability. Those that have leadership ability and want to make a difference must engaged differently than those just wanting to come to work each day be left alone.
An effective safety management system requires employee accountability, management commitment and employee engagement, but these concepts are not simple absolutes. They are fluid definitions that advance with an organization. This is brief, and does not due the topic justice, but I hope this can begin the discussion so this concept can be explored.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
