Walk the talk
Written by Mari-Len De Guzman 18 November 2008
When it comes to influencing workers to behave safely, leaders need to show them how it’s done. Recent studies have shown a direct link between workers’
perception of the priority their leaders place on safety and their attitude
towards working safely.
Table of contents
From the top
Direct influence on employees’ behaviour towards safety typically comes from frontline supervisors and managers, rather than the senior executives, says St. Mary’s University’s Fleming. That’s because these leaders have a more direct relationship with the workers than the senior level officers.
To what extent then do senior executives influence employee behaviours?
Fleming suspects there isn’t a lot of direct impact. “It seems to be more of an indirect thing. It seems that the senior leader’s behaviour influences employee behaviour through their subordinates.”
Fleming admits, however, that it has been difficult in the past to conclusively measure and determine the link between senior executives and frontline employees when it comes to influencing safety behaviours.
There are typically only a few senior executives in an organization that it’s difficult to draw conclusive findings on those. Conducting research on this area would require a large number of organizations under study, he says.
“But what I think is going on is a two-stage process: I think the senior leaders set the priorities for their direct reports – the managers. Then those managers influence the people who report to them, so it’s sort of a cascade thing,” Fleming explains.
No matter the extent of the influence, however, Petro-Canada looks to its senior executive team as primary proponents of a safety culture.
Company leaders, from the supervisors to the vice-presidents, all have to undertake a training called, Leaders’ Role in Creating the Zero Harm Culture, says Raymond.
“The top executives, whenever they talk to employees, whether its through written materials or otherwise, they always talk about safety,” she says.
During what’s called a Safety Stand-down, Petro-Canada’s senior executives travel to various work sites and take the opportunity to talk directly to the employees, Raymond says.
“They pull the people off their jobs and sit them down in the lunch room, while the local leaders leave the room and employees get to talk about safety to the very top management and how things are going. What could be improved? What’s on their mind?”
Different challenges
Senior leaders also have different sets of challenges when promoting workplace safety, says Trefor Munn-Venn, associate director, national security and public safety at the Conference Board of Canada.
“The CEO drives the activity as it relates to the interaction with the board of directors,” says Munn-Venn. “If you want to go through a health and safety transformation that spreads across the entire organization and transforms your relationships, you need to have the board buy into this as well.”
The Conference Board of Canada acts as the secretariat for the CEO Health and Safety Leadership Charter. Founded in 2005, the charter prescribes a series of commitments that member CEOs voluntarily choose to make.
From the initial 50 members, the charter has grown to more than 250 CEO signatories across the country.
As the “representative of the values of the organization”, the CEO Leadership Charter maintains that the CEO’s role as safety leaders goes beyond just setting the policies for health and safety, but ensuring their actions are consistent with what they tell their employees.
“It is one thing to say, ‘we believe in heath and safety and therefore we have established these positions and these people will make sure that those things are going to happen,’” Munn-Venn says. “But if the CEO will not wear the hard hat or the safety boots in areas they are required, that sends a message to other staff that it’s required for some and not for others.”
The CEOs also have the unique challenge of finding ways to integrate elements of health and safety into all aspects of the organization. This includes making sure that job descriptions have a health and safety component and that health and safety are regular agenda items throughout the organization, Munn-Venn says.
Because many of these challenges are unique to the CEO role, these top leaders look to other CEOs within and outside of their industries for best practices. The CEO Health and Safety Leadership Charter provides a venue for these executives to come together and share their experiences and learn from each other.
Published in
Safety Stories
Tagged under
By iWeb Design
Reader Poll
Latest Articles
- B.C. government, WorkSafeBC support farm inquest recommendations
- Coroner's jury calls for mandatory safety training at mushroom farm inquest
- B.C. Safety Authority issues safety order for electrical equipment in sawmills
- IWH urges Ontario firms to participate in OHS leading indicators study
- Alberta home for teens had no warning of violence before worker killed
