Safety Strategies for Improving Your Program

There’s one factor that best-in-class safety programs share: the ongoing commitment to improving their safety strategies.

A safety strategy isn’t a one-and-done development. As your company evolves, so must your safety programs to accommodate these new changes.

With the end of the year almost here, there’s no better time to re-evaluate your program. Here are a few key strategies to inspire you.

Discuss Safety Daily

Safety is as much a daily part of business as customer service, production, machine maintenance, or the other myriad activities. When you consistently talk about safety, be it issues, incidents, improvements, or training, you’re demonstrating that safety is a top priority for your company. Employees who are regularly exposed to safety talks or safety shares are more likely to feel a part of your efforts.

Reward Top Safety Performers

Workers who practice safety shouldn’t go unnoticed. When you make it a point to reward your team members for working safely, it inspires others to do the same. For example, you could make rounds around the workplace and hand out a reward for those “caught in the act”. Make a big deal about it, and remind your team they could be next.

Ask for Participation

You can’t create a safe workplace on your own. It takes involvement and participation from every employee to create a truly safe work environment. You likely don’t see every hazard in a given workday, nor do you always know when someone isn’t following procedure.

Ask your team for their help in creating a better work environment. Show them how they can report incidents or who to tell if they notice an employee is putting himself or herself at risk by not adhering to instructions.

Share Safety Success Stories

If you report near misses, then you already know the importance of acknowledging what could have happened had something gone ignored. The reason behind sharing safety success stories is the same. Your team should know about potential disasters that were averted or how certain safety concerns were addressed. By keeping them in the know, they realize the company isn’t immune to safety incidents and will likely be more attentive to these issues.

There’s never a bad time to review your safety strategies or make improvements to your program. For more inspiration on how you can create a safer workplace, check out our blog resources.