So, You're The New Safety Manager? Part 2
Allen F. Weitzel
December 14, 2011
Digging In
Remember, safety is not a good news department. Many people will want to run when they see you coming. Normally you will bring more work for them to do or bring news that they do not want to hear. So you need to work on YOU. You must be a pleasant person to your fellow workers. Your job is hard enough. Safety is a vital subject, but not a fun or sexy topic. Work at making sure people feel comfortable talking and being around you. Develop your people skills. Sign up for some "people" courses, if need be. Any experienced receptionist, flight attendant, or waitress can teach you plenty of "people power" tricks.
How else can you convince people to welcome you into their meetings and not be fearful of your presence? Always deliver the facts. Do not taint or skew the statistics to support your case. Be known as a person who will tell it like it is, politely, of course. Even if the information does not support your position, tell the truth and deliver the correct "goods." Keep accurate records. Additionally, never burn a source. If you receive confidential information and you need, for the safety reasons, to forward the data to someone who has the power to generate change, do not snitch on who told you the facts. If asked who your informant might be, let the questioning party know that you are of no use to either side if you reveal your source. If you blow the whistle, you will never have anyone one confiding in you again; you would lose the opportunity to receive unadulterated information.
Growing
Another support gathering practice is to find out the topics that are important to other departments or specific staff members. Try to provide service and information to those topics. Provide information in the manner that key staff prefers. If your general manager likes short emails, communicate data in that succinct format. Make sure you go to other manager´s offices for meetings, rather than asking them to come to you.
The primary persons or departments, aside from the general manager, that you need to have in your corner are the maintenance department, your boss, the company insurance carrier, and the company legal counsel. If those folks are supportive of your goals and programs, the rest of the company will follow along. The other departments will have no choice but to cooperate if the company insurance carrier and maintenance department support what you are trying to do. It will not hurt to have the support of the public relations director, as well.
One way to gain respect for your position is to volunteer your services to industry organizations, which are always looking for experts to speak at annual conventions and monthly luncheons. You may not feel like an industry veteran, yet, but you are an expert about your facility and such experiences are extremely valuable. Volunteer to submit "how-to" articles to industry publications. Once you have established your track record at outside organizations, company staff will appreciate your efforts and expertise, as well. Plus, you will pick up lots of tips and tricks from your counterparts at these functions, that you can use at your facility.
Getting Things Done
As you progress, make sure you keep your door open to ideas and criticism. Learn to take suggestions with grace. Once people feel comfortable with you, they will open up and tell you about safety concerns they notice. You will be their sounding board. They have been waiting for someone to come along to whom they could spew their concerns and issues. Some will be brilliant, well thought out and very valid. Some will be "fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants" crazy, or appear as gripes or complaints. Listen carefully to each one and address them objectively, culling the real problem from all the verbiage surrounding it. Always offer a solution or accept the concern and place it into the company processing procedures. Never "blow off" an employee or customer who has, at least to them, a legitimate safety concern. The company will hear from this person again if you are aware of the situation, did not address it, and it ends up causing harm.
Do not tell people how to do their job. If you have a safety concern to discuss with a department, educate them on the concern, offer possible solutions if you have some, but let the department decide the best solution to use to solve the concern. Do communicate the parts of the concern you need addressed, so the critical elements of the "fix" are not overlooked. Your goal is safety, not to nitpick the process. You will receive more support if the correcting department has input as to how they will resolve the issue.
What happens if you receive a concern or issue for which you have no solution? This is where networking pays off. Develop a mentor or confidant. You need to cultivate a nucleus of safety manager friends, with whom you feel comfortable. You want colleagues you can contact on short notice, brainstorm the problem, and not have them laugh in your face, because you did not know a solution or the question itself seems crazy. There will be times when just asking the question makes you feel stupid. You want this fellow counterpart to be a person who will not take you or your predicament lightly. You want a peer who can offer you a quick, objective solution. Normally, a solution is only a second opinion away. There are lots of good ideas out there; use them. Remember to give credit where credit is due.
Pitfalls
A safety manager must provide balance and overview to the company safety program. Avoid getting bogged down in tiny details, even though they may seem fascinating to you. If another department, your insurance carrier, or your claims administrator can handle a job just as effectively as you can, then delegate that task to them. This gives you the time to keep your eye on the ball and continue to revisit the company safety goals.
Avoid placing yourself in a position where you are the single judge, jury, and executioner on the resolution of all safety concerns, customer claims, lawsuits, or Worker´s
Compensation case solutions. Be sure you have an associate who can review safety issues and provide guidance in resolving a case or a concern. Third Party Administrators (TPAs) are the ideal individuals for this purpose. Having an unbiased third party will ensure an objective outlook at each action. You do not want to be the only one in court representing your company. A TPA arrangement will properly insulate and distance you from the day-to-day confusion of case management. Always document the reasons for all-important decisions.
The Crowning Touches
What about some ideas that can be used to strengthen the safety fiber of your company? Here are a few to try:
Safety Action Plans: Require each department meet with the safety department once per year to establish departmental safety action plans. Establish programs they can implement to reduce employee injuries or increase safety education and awareness. Review the year-end results and reward the best plans.
Safety Council: Establish group company executives who can make critical safety decisions and can execute action in fast order.
Safety Committee Members: Assign a safety expert in each department. Train these individuals on day-to-day safety procedures. Send a monthly safety log to these employees, have them inspect their areas for hazards, and have the documents be returned to the safety department for review and retention. This documentation, as well as other program documents, can be shown to insurance carriers as proof as to the strength of your safety program.
Emergency Evacuation Drill Training Checklist: Create a document that individual departments can follow to set up, execute, and evaluate an emergency evacuation drill. The safety or security department staff can assist departments with their evacuation drills, but you want the department heads to be in a position to set up and implement a drill without waiting for permission from the safety department.
Safety Handbook: If your company does not have one, create a handbook with only employee related safety procedures outlined. This booklet should be issued to every employee, when they receive their initial new employee orientation.
Safety Incentive And Award Programs: It is important to reward safety that is performed over and above the "call of duty." Such programs should reward immediate single safety actions, as well as long-term safety awareness or safety record.
Safety Procedures In Guides: All employee-training guides should include safety, emergency, and evacuation procedures for every job function. The safety department should proof all guides before they are issued to employees.
Recertification: Evaluate training programs to be sure they contain a recertification contingent, addressing workers who have been on the job for more than 2 years. Veteran employees should receive as much retraining as new employees receive initial training.
Medical Care For Employees And Customers: Be sure that there is effective medical care for customers and employees, as appropriate.
Off Hours Incident Investigation: Establish procedures and protocols that managers on duty and security can use to initiate incident investigations when the safety department is not on property. Always remember, after an incident, do not correct a hazard without taking pictures of it first.
Emergency Supplies: Determine what type of supplies are needed should an emergency of any magnitude occur. Who needs these supplies? Set up a secure location for these supplies away from normal buildings. Make sure they are inspected and refreshed on a regular basis. Your local first aid kit supplier company can assist you with this task.
Safety Feedback: Create and monitor systems so that customers and employees can provide safety feedback to the organization. Comment cards are one way to make this happen.
New Twists
After awhile, you will have the lay of the land and respect of the staff. Do not be surprised if another hurdle pops up, that being a change in management above you. It might be your boss or even the general manager. Your natural reaction is to feel that you should not have to prove yourself to new management; that your track record should stand-alone. Understand it is a normal part of business for current staff to pay their "dues" all over again with the new boss. It will be expected that new management will want to change procedures and try new things. Do not waste time by trying to lunge and parry with the new leadership. Quickly learn the new management preferences and tailor your safety activities toward these new goals. You will eventually meet in the middle and be back on track with your safety program humming away, in no time.
If you are doing a good job in protecting the assets of the company, you will soon discover that the staff has gotten a little complacent. You have done a good job, you have kept claims and Worker Comp cost down, you have kept the company out of court, and this kind of success can breed difficulty. Some directors and vice presidents will start making more daring decisions that you feel is jeopardizing the company safety program. You are part of this dilemma. The staff has not had to answer any interrogatories, be grilled by plaintiff counsel at any depositions, or had to testify in court. They have become comfortable. You need to conduct an educational campaign. From time to time, send interrogatories to key executives and ask them to help you answer the interrogatories, so they become aware of the process it takes to keep the ship sailing in the right direction. Suggest that legal counsel come on site and present a mock deposition. Present safety classes to management staff once per year. Train the staff on legally required safety programs, and provide a once a year updates to key staff on new regulations, as they are enacted. Sell your job and success to the executives. It is important that they know how the programs you developed have kept the company on a safe path.
Your job, as a safety manager, is not to know how much to torque down a #3 Bowman bolt on a mechanical device. Your task is to know that there is a program in place to address such a task, and to assure it is safely followed.
So you´re the new Safety Manager? Darn right and getting better all the time!
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