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By Propulo Consulting

By Madison Hanscom, PhD Recovery and downtime are important for a happy and productive workforce. As a leader, you should consider your role in this process. Reflect on how you contribute to the climate surrounding recovery in your workplace. A study from the American Psychological Association recently showed when companies encourage people to take their vacation time to disconnect, employees come back feeling more refreshed, motivated, and productive than companies that do not encourage taking time off (1). This shows the value of building a culture that allows people to disconnect without feeling guilty or mentally tethered to work at all times.

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By Madison Hanscom, PhD COVID-19 has changed our way of life inside and outside of work. It has forced us to rethink the way we work and enjoy time off. Businesses have been hit extremely hard, and most have been forced to make fast decisions to protect workers and customers. Many companies found themselves responding in ways to stay resilient. Millions of workers transitioned to a virtual model, and for those still on site, there are new ways of doing things and approaching everyday work. As a result of these changes, cultural norms have been upended. What was valued in the past might

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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 Madison Hanscom, PhD There are a great deal of conflicting perspectives when it comes to leadership training. Many individuals do not think it is worth the time because they believe leaders are born and not made – that genetics and personality are more influential in determining a great leader than the knowledge, skills, and abilities someone can build and sharpen during training. Others think training is a valuable tool that leads to a better workforce. But what does the research say? A group of researchers (1) decided to dig deep into questions about leadership training by conducting a meta analysis on

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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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