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Safety Communication

By Madison Hanscom, PhD An engaged workforce has strong, positive effects on safety. Engaged employees are more willing to go the extra mile and take pride in their work, so it should be a goal for leaders to create an environment for engagement in order to promote a safer workplace. Consider the following when developing your plan to promote employee engagement in a safety context: Help employees see the value in their work. When you help employees to see how their work connects to the bigger picture, this creates meaning. It is important to show workers how their role and safety connect to

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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. Effective safety leaders have self-motivation styles that help them accomplish organizational goals. Four self-motivation styles (Steers & Porter, 1991) are relevant for understanding the self-motivation of safety leaders. • Need for Affiliation (nAFF) - Leaders high in nAFF are motivated by group cohesion and healthy interpersonal relationships. They often attend to the emotional needs of others and have a strong desire to be liked by individuals in their group.• Need for Achievement (nACH) - People with a high nACH take responsibility for solving problems, are often competitive, and are extremely concerned with successfully completing their tasks.• Need to

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By Josh Williams, Ph.D. Creating and sustaining a “learning culture” is critical for optimal safety culture and performance. Unfortunately, this can be challenging with organizations that have a history of “old school” cultures. In other cases, new leaders may legitimately need to establish a baseline of accountability to clean up messes created by overly lenient past practices. Overly lenient cultures often result in “looking the other way” and increased risk-taking behavior. However, emphasizing only compliance and regulation leads to safety performance plateaus. Promoting an open “learning culture” and infusing more positive recognition is needed to advance safety culture beyond current levels and

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By Brie DeLisi In any strong safety culture, both positive recognition and discipline are valuable. However, often organizations find the discipline piece is often considered an ‘easier’ method to drive change. Unfortunately, a focus on discipline without positive reinforcement and recognition will keep an organization at a ‘Compliant’ level of maturity – in which employees will solely focus on how to avoid punishment, rather than owning safety to keep themselves and others injury-free. You may wonder, what’s so bad about a motivation to avoid punishment? It is similar to only following the speed limit when you know there is radar and police monitoring,

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By Madison Hanscom, PhD A safety champion embodies the notion that safety comes before everything else. These individuals always have safety on the mind. They understand how safety connects to the big picture both inside and outside of work, and they are the backbone of a strong safety culture. Those who work with a safety champion know it, because it feels like someone always has your back." Researchers were interested in this topic of strong safety support. They conducted a study with railway maintenance employees to explore the extent to which perceived safety support from those around you at work might influence

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