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July 2020

By Josh Williams, Ph.D. Want to be a better safety leader? Picture the ocean. Not the Atlantic or Pacific, but the acronym O.C.E.A.N. This stands for the Big 5 personality traits of Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. Before addressing each trait in the Big 5, here’s a bit of history into its development. In the early 1900s, Industrial/Organizational Psychology (IOP) focused on the selection and placement of individuals in organizational settings (Viteles, 1932). During World War I, IOP researchers developed and administered the Army Alpha and Beta intelligence tests to more than 1.75 million soldiers. This test was used to place

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By Madison Hanscom and Brie DeLisi When it comes to occupational safety, planning and procedures are incredibly important. They may be a legal requirement in some respects, and they also provide a guideline for the workforce to be aligned on mission, goals, and activities. When taking on a culture change approach for achieving better workplace safety, planning and procedures will be a critical component. Planning will help to bring implementation strategies for improving safety performance to life. It can also help to identify key priorities. Procedures will provide guidance and direction for everyday functioning along the way. However, this is not enough

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By Josh Williams, Ph.D. Effective leaders continuously look for ways to increase employee safety commitment. Employees who feel committed to the organization are more likely to work safely, caution others for safety, and get actively involved in safety efforts. Those who aren’t committed rarely go beyond the call of duty for safety or anything else. In fact, they may have more serious issues such as non-compliance, absenteeism/tardiness, and confrontations with others. Organizational commitment consists of (Saal & Knight,1995): Strong support and acceptance of the organization’s values and goals. The willingness to put forward considerable effort for the organization. A strong desire to maintain membership

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By Madison Hanscom, PhD Remember that not all stressors have the same impact, and not all stress interventions work similarly. There are different types of stressors. Some stress can actually be a great thing. It can be energizing, create engagement, or promote personal growth. A job without stress of any kind would be boring, and we certainly would not grow professionally! If you think back to some of your greatest achievements, there were likely stressful moments along the way. This is normal and healthy. Less stressful workplace When stress becomes unmanageable, it can become detrimental. When we don’t have the resources to deal with

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By Madison Hanscom, PhD Take care of your own stress and work with employees to build a “stress management toolbox”. As I mentioned in Part 1 of this blog series, the right solutions are going to depend on the source of stress, and the best solutions are primary solutions that address the root of the problem. As a leader, you often have more power than employees to make changes that reduce stressors, so consider what you can do first to create a healthier work environment (see the second blog in this series). Sometimes we have to use secondary solutions for things we cannot change. This is

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By Madison Hanscom, PhD Leaders are in a unique position where they can make positive changes that influence the lives of their employees. Consider the following strategies: Continually take a pulse. If you don’t check in with employees regularly about their workload and experience, you won’t have any idea about stress levels. When things are overwhelming and more stressful than usual — listen and understand why. This way you can isolate the factors that cause a negative experience. When things are less stressful than usual — also understand why! Particularly in times when workload is high, but stress is low. Those are

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