Today organizations are faced with many challenges. Many of these things can be overwhelming in and of themselves, but we are seldom faced with one at a time, they come at us in clusters. Employee wellbeing is but one of these things. In our experience few other things are more of a detriment to conducive employee relations as a poor safety culture. Poor employee relations can be one of the single largest barriers to organizational growth.
A Lean World-Class Safety Culture (LWCSC) is one that is NOT mutually exclusive of all other factors in a business. In fact, it must be complimentary to the entire business. A LWCSC is one that enhances and strengthens the entire organization.
Can you have a Lean WCSC without being into Lean Manufacturing? Sure can, but a LWCSC sure compliments Lean Manufacturing. Why do we recommend a Safety Culture be Lean? First, Lean sometimes sounds complicated but at its core it is all about eliminating waste. There is nothing more wasteful than an employee getting seriously injured on the job! Secondly, there are many tools used to diagnose and remediate problems in Lean. Lean requires a systematic methodology to problem solving while at the same time not being boxed in by old thinking. All this is also certainly applicable to employee safety and health!
World Class Safety Culture has several key components. Many people have differing opinions, but in our experience the following are those components:
- Safety Rules and Compliance is the foundation of all safety programs. OSHA Compliance is what is required. In LWCSC OSHA Compliance is only the beginning not the end. All LWCSCs surpass OSHA Compliance by enhancement of their own safety rules beyond the requirements.
- Management Commitment is the one of the easiest and yet often the most difficult components for organizations. In LWCSCs Commitment is more than just words, it is genuine and is seen more than heard. One-way LWCSCs demonstrate Commitment is to make Safety a Core Value (not a goal) in their organizations.
- Metrics and Reporting Systems are important as LWCSCs must know where they have been and where they are going. In classical Safety Management we relied on Lagging Metrics which is a reliance on injury tracking and investigation. LWCSCs are looking more to what is now called Leading Metrics, which are indicators and metrics of a more proactive nature. Examples, being measuring the number of Safety Suggestions and Near Miss Reports made by employees.
- Organizational Learning and Training is important to keep employees knowledgeable of safety but most importantly how to protect themselves from injury. Like Compliance, some training is mandatory, but LWCSCs go beyond the training required. LWCSCs also spend resources on education to employees like Leadership and Teamwork.
- Employee Engagement and Teamwork is the one component that differentiates Safety Cultures from real LWCSCs! There is no more powerful tool to promote Safety Culture as well as a genuine Harmonious Organizational Culture than Employee Engagement preferably by having employees work on Teams to make things better! The benefits of having employees really engaged in how work gets done are huge and well documented.
Safety Fitz LLC has a vast amount of experience, training, and education to implement a Lean World Class Safety Culture in almost any organization. We can assist with any, or all, of the above components. We look forward to working with you towards that end!