How to Address Safety Concerns With Your Team

As a manager, it’s your job to spot and address workplace safety hazards. However, getting employees to buy into safety practices and hear your concerns isn’t always easy.

You want every member of your team to leave work in the same physical condition in which they arrived, so you have to approach the issue in a manner that will resonate. Here’s some advice to help you strike a chord.

4 Tips to Get Your Team Onboard With Safety

Share Workplace Safety Stats

Numbers don’t lie, so share statistics on workplace injuries and illnesses with your team. For example, there were approximately 2.8 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses reported by private employers in 2017, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Additionally, data from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration revealed 5,147 workers died on the job in 2017 — i.e., more than 14 deaths per day.

Hopefully, these statistics will serve as a wakeup call to your team that accidents happen when proper safety measures aren’t followed.

Explain the Purpose of Safety Initiatives

If they don’t understand the reason behind safety rules, it can be hard for workers to take them seriously. Help people appreciate your policies by explaining the reason each one was instituted. When they’re able to make sense of these guidelines, they’re more likely to follow them.

Ask Them to Help Develop Safety Plans

Your employees are the people doing the work, so asking for their assistance creating safety plans makes sense. This will also help them become more engaged in the process because they’ll feel like they have a personal stake in it. If they help make the rules, they’ll be more inclined to stick to them.

Reward Compliant Behavior

Staying safe and healthy on the job should be enough incentive for employees to follow the rules, but it doesn’t always work that way. Give them an extra push by rewarding workers who put safety first. Choose an incentive they want — i.e., pizza lunch, cash bonus, charity donation — so they’re inspired to get it.

Looking to Grow Your Talent Pool?

Need a little help finding workers who share your commitment to safety? Wood Staffing is here to assist! Contact us today to build your Michiana team with responsible talent committed to doing things the right way.