The 2020 Black Lives Matter movement was activated by the power of mindset. Arrests go foul when police have a tainted mindset, and site safety is Jeopardised when workers have ‘bad’ attitudes. The simple truth is that every safe operating procedure relies on workers exercising the best mindset.
Your workers are not likely to kneel on a throat, loot a store or take apart a statue, but just as mindsets are key in those actions, mindsets likewise contribute to non-compliance with safe operating treatments. By being conscious of the headspace our people are in, we can much better execute our WHS Management System (WHSMS) and be effective in harnessing their compliance across a series of safety subjects.
Let’s take a look at ways we can promote and sustain the type of mindsets that make safe operating procedures work.
A Safe Operating Procedure Works When ...?
In case you’re not a regular reader of this resource, this article follows up on a summary short article published in early June 2020. It was titled, Your Safety Is Only As Strong As Your Weakest WHS Procedure, and it introduced 5 focus locations of mindset, method, affordability, leadership and currency. In this article, we concentrate on mindsets.
In that initial short article, we resolved the incorrect perceptions that work health and wellness treatments slow things down, make complex production, and decrease revenue.
When we evaluate a WHS procedure just in concerns to the time and place it is happening, we may rightly conclude the safety procedure did slow, make complex and increase the unit-cost of that activity. No safe work procedure takes place in a vacuum.
The mindsets of your labor force need to lift beyond the task immediately prior to them. A larger vision is key to fostering practical mindsets. Remember, your safety is just as strong as the mindset of your weakest employee.
You might consider breathing life into these 3 office mindsets:
1. A quality-focused mindset,
2. A competitive mindset, and
3. A profit mindset.
Safety Topics and a Quality-Focused Mindset
We won’t labour the point on this item because the connection is relatively apparent. A quality-focused mindset normally produces attention to information, a willingness to do what could otherwise be frustrating, and an awareness that no activity exists in seclusion. Workers with this sort of mindset are not likely to cut corners on safety. On the other hand, those with casual mindsets towards quality and outcomes are also most likely to be lax when it comes to safety.
For these reasons, we’re going to concentrate on competitive and revenue problems.
Viewing safety from a quality and precision-focused viewpoint is vital, and if you ‘d like to explore this one some more, we created a six-part resource that will help. Published in 2017, it’s protection of quality safety treatments can be an exemplar for developing quality mindsets in your workplace. It hit on a lot of safety subjects throughout the Safety procedures, processes and resources spectrum. These articles can be accessed on our blog.
Safe Operating Procedures and the Competitive Mindset
Are you suspicious about that heading? If you were, it would be understandable.
Competition can enhance motivation and effort; this has been conclusively proven, but are we forging ahead by suggesting competition can increase safety?
You might likewise be believing, “Isn’t Work Health and Safety something we require to be co-operating on?” (and if you believe that, you’re best on track). But there’s a specific type of competition we are encouraging. How do we produce the best competitive environment?
To assist workers feel excellent about safety, and feel great about competitors, we require to be producing the best emotions – and we’re not just spouting theories here. We’ve accrued information from a variety of sources, but most likely the simplest to absorb is the Harvard Business Review article if you ‘d like to read more (https://hbr.org/2017/03/the-pros-and-cons-of-competition-among-employees).
How Does the Competition Make People Feel?
The majority of professional athletes (even the regular ones like me) understand that there are mental and physiological states that help them play the game much better. Focus, energy, endurance and more are all supported by the ideal mindset.
The most effective work environment competitors are those that concentrate on winning a bonus or some form of public acknowledgment. These produce anticipation and excitement, which, in turn, can produce creativity, the pursuit of effectiveness and efficient compliance with safe operating treatments.
Professional athletes (and non-athletes) also know that worry and stress and anxiety are not useful. These negative emotions normally impede efficiency, decrease analytical capabilities, boost unethical behaviours, and motivate corner-cutting – none of which are great for safety.
Prevent these emotions by guaranteeing competitors do not stir awareness of unfavourable repercussions, like:
1. The risk of being laid off,
2. Facing an earnings decrease, or
3. Dealing with embarrassment of any type.
It likewise isn’t as basic as stirring up the right belief. For this reason, guarantee you’re upfront about why you’re carrying out or developing competition.
The benefit is that you’ll usually win respect for truly investing in their safety.
When using competitors to increase safe operating procedure compliance, think about applying these principles:
1. Produce contests that focus on specific behaviours (like the Highway Patrol finishes with specific campaigns, e.g. seat belts).
2. For treatments that involve a team, reward the group (not private members).
3. Run competitors for particular and brief durations. Do not let it end up being regular.
4. Publicly and routinely post rating updates. Don’t let focus wane.
5. Minimise the danger of ‘losing’. Prevent producing worry and anxiety.
6. Concentrate on the benefits to be acquired, not what may be lost.
7. Usage benefits that produce anticipation and excitement.
8. Reward in public, praise in personal.
Utilising Profit to Increase Safe Operating Procedure Compliance
REVENUE MATTERS! If there’s inadequate earnings, there will be no service, and there will be no jobs. No affordable individual expects a business to run at a loss, so we need to honestly deal with some stinking thinking about revenue and safety.
In late 2019, we published an article on our blog showing that safe operating procedures, when rightly approached, really improve your bottom line.
In that short article, we suggested 3 key methods to cultivate this awareness and mindset:
1. Consider safety procedures in a practical way,
2. Assistance individuals with positive work-culture, and
3. Equip them with simple to use resources
A practical mindset identifies the complexity of the work environment, adopting a determined commitment to see beyond the obvious. When we comprehend the contribution of safe operating treatments across a series of safety topics and contexts, and we connect those topics and contexts to revenue (which isn’t difficult), we start to think in the proper way.
Likely, some of your individuals are already thinking with an appropriate mindset. Know the needs of your teams, design the behaviours you desire, discourage corner-cutting, and ensure every person has the right to say “No” and “Whoa”.
Resource you’re individuals well – which of course is where we come in. When safety resources are effective, practical, easy to utilise, cost-effective, and align with your goals, they end up being a profit-oriented financial investment.
If you take a glimpse around, you'll find:
– Complete Work Health and Safety Management Systems,
– A range of Management Plans,
– Individual Safe Work Method Statements resources covering an expanse of safe operating procedure contexts,
– Specific Industry Packs across 23 separate trade/industry expertises, and
– A range of other resources spanning the safety topic and procedure realm.
We can likewise customise a service to your particular needs.
' Safe' Thinking Saves Lives and organisations
Safety mindsets that work are quality-focused, wisely competitive, and profit supporting.
From the greatest executive to the youngest apprentice, safe thinking will conserve lives, and likewise place you for profit over time. Safety mindsets matter.
Arrests go foul when police have a tainted mindset, and website safety is Jeopardised when workers have ‘bad’ attitudes. It was entitled, Your Safety Is Only As Strong As Your Weakest Work Health and Safety Procedure, and it presented five focus locations of mindset, method, currency, affordability and leadership. Keep in mind, your safety is just as strong as the mindset of your weakest worker.
Workers with this sort of mindset are unlikely to cut corners on safety. Released in 2017, it’s protection of quality safety procedures can be an exemplar for developing quality mindsets in your work environment.