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September 2020

By Josh Williams, Ph.D. Self-monitoring is a key factor affecting the human dynamics of occupational safety. It’s defined as one’s motivation and ability to interpret social cues from the environment and respond to those cues in a socially desirable way. Low self-monitors act similarly regardless of the occasion; high self-monitors alter their behavior effectively to fit the particular situation (Snyder, 1974). This has also been referred to as the “if-then behavioral signature” (Geller, 2008). In research tests, high self-monitors better understand subtle undercurrents in human interactions (Mill, 1984) and perform better on novel tasks (Haverkamp, 1999). They also become emergent leaders in

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By Josh Williams, Ph.D. Soft skills training is needed at all leadership levels to improve communication, listening skills, and empathy. It also involves increasing the quality and quantity of safety recognition which is often found to be one of the lower-scoring items on our safety culture survey. Increasing recognition improves safety culture and increases the probability of safe work practices in the future. This reduces the risk of serious injuries and fatalities (SIFs). Leaders should also promote psychological safety so that employees feel comfortable speaking up. Creating an open culture encourages field-level communication which helps leaders better understand and resolve system weaknesses. People

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By Madison Hanscom, PhD Employees want an active voice in your company, and leadership should be interested in what they have to say. The people are the culture, and it is in the best interest of leadership to know their perspective. Because it is often difficult to touch base with every employee, organizational surveys are a great way to listen more efficiently. Pulse surveys are brief, targeted feedback assessments that are administered frequently (e.g., quarterly, monthly) to gauge a variety of constructs like employee engagement, perceptions of change, or satisfaction with an initiative. To allow for speed and simplicity, pulse surveys usually

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By Dr. Madison Hanscom A company’s safety culture can be described by the collection of attitudes, beliefs, norms, and values surrounding safety and risks in an organization. It also indicates the extent to which the company values people above and beyond production. So, by definition, it is most certainly related. A company with a deeply embedded culture for safety will treat COVID-19 protections and conversations as important – just like any other component of safety like fall protection or chemical handling. Safety is safety. It’s hard to imagine a company with a mature, strong safety culture that is not responding well

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By Madison Hanscom, PhD It is common to assume that executives, CEOs, and highly successful entrepreneurs just ‘have it all’, but many of these individuals are silently suffering. Executives can have a lot on their plate. They might feel responsible for the ups and downs of employees. They might work long hours and feel pressure to make the company more successful. They also can feel very isolated, like they can’t be vulnerable without looking weak. Despite having a great deal of weight on their shoulders, it is important that leaders are doing well both psychologically and physically. When executives are doing well,

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By Brie DeLisi “Leadership doesn’t walk the talk” is one of the most common complaints we hear from employees during assessments with organizations that have less mature safety cultures. Many leaders need to understand a couple of critical components of their culture if they want to improve safety: 1. Employees are always watching.2. Actions speak louder than words. We understand that you want your employees to be more accountable and be responsible for safety, but they are always playing ‘follow the leader,’ which is why the culture starts with you. If you truly want to improve safety culture within your organization, it is

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