3 Easy Steps to Engaging Management and Employees in your Safety Strategy

One of the main problems experienced by safety professionals and supervisors is the trouble they have encouraging employees to “buy into” the importance of workplace safety. GoContractor’s Conor McNally outlines how to engage others in your safety strategy.

It might be easy to perform a presentation for a group of employees, telling them how they are supposed to behave for a safe working environment to be produced. The real difficulty is getting employees to adopt to any new changes. Most of the time employers need to make a serious effort, encouraging them to become actively involved in workplace safety.

Why encourage workers to follow your company’s safety plan? 

Contractor management, or the temporary hiring of contractors for their own specific skills and experience, often requires sufficient employee orientation before work begins and safety should always be made a priority. When organizations have a solid safety culture, contractors are often more likely to become interested in the importance and implementation of any popular safe work practices. It is vital for all employees to get behind the safety plan of your company, because:

• They are most likely to be directly affected by any safety issues, having to deal with these health and safety hazards every day.
• With a vested interest in successful protection programs, an innate feeling of self-preservation should encourage them to perform their job in a safer manner.
• Any group decisions benefit from the group’s wider level of experience.
• Employees are expected to provide more support and give more attention to programs in which they have personal input.
• If employees are asked and encouraged to provide ideas which are seriously taken into account, they are likely to feel more fulfilled and productive at work.

The Main Advantages of Getting Management to Support Your Safety Plan

Dealing with important health and safety issues, provides you with the opportunity to improve business efficiency, while safeguarding workers. Therefore, the main advantages of getting employees and management to follow your safety plan, include:

• Cost reduction and reduced risks
• Drop in employee absence
• Reduced turnover rates
• Decrease in accidents, breakdowns and process failure
• Improved business continuity
• Increase in productivity
• Improved standing, leading to a better reputation with suppliers, clients and other partners