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Safety Communication

By Brie DeLisi Creating and implementing safety changes in an organization is no easy task. There are so many opportunities for failure – not having a thorough plan, unanticipated roadblocks, a lack of resources, ill-suited programs and procedures. Even if all of those items are covered, the most impactful is whether or not there is buy-in from the greater employee population. Below, we’ll cover tips on how to generate employee buy-in when making changes to organizational safety. Employee Involvement – perhaps one of the most critical steps is to actually involve employee representatives in the change process itself for a number of

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By Josh Williams, Ph.D. Leaders with effective communication skills are better able to constructively express their vision, relate to employees, and achieve their own work goals compared to leaders with poor communication skills (Poertner & Miller, 1996). This directly impacts employees’ attitudes and behaviors for safety. Which Communication Style are You? • Sheriffs are task-oriented. Their strengths include being decisive, direct, practical, and closure-oriented. However, they are often impatient, overly independent, combative, insensitive, and domineering.• Diplomats are supportive and patient. Their strengths include being consistent, easygoing, responsive to others, and effective listeners. However, they can also be too passive, indecisive, slow to change,

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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 It is not a secret… when the workforce perceives that management considers safety to be as important as production, this is associated with great outcomes. A group of researchers decided to dig in deeper (1). They collected data from employees working in hazardous jobs and found what they suspected — there is a significant relationship between management commitment to safety and higher worker safety motivation, higher safety participation (safety behaviors that go above and beyond what is required), and lower injuries (1). They took it a step further by examining what these relationships look like when employees report

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By Josh Williams, Ph.D. There are many ways leaders “show up” for safety. Effective communication is near the top of the list. Leaders show they understand and care through thoughtful, interactive conversations with employees. This includes strong listening skills and authentic responses to issues that arise. This is the essence of empathic communication and is vastly different from these maladaptive patterns: dominant, passive, and passive aggressive (adapted from Brounstein, 2001). A brief review of each style is provided below. Which one best reflects how you lead and interact with your employees? Dominant Communicators Dominant communicators believe aggressiveness is more effective than diplomacy and

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By Josh Williams, Ph. D. Fellow sports fans are lamenting the lack of televised sports in the COVID era. In fact, some are suggesting the lack of sports is actually creating low levels of anxiety and depression in more passionate fans. “One of the first things to recognize is that, yes, sports is a form of entertainment. But it is also a source of social connectiveness with family, friends and with a team,” said Dr. Mark Terjesen, a professor of psychology at St. John’s. “For some, the absence of sports compared to everything else may seem frivolous. But, for the rest

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