Not Just a Culture for Safety – Building Community at Work through Safety

When I’m speaking in front of various groups of workers, I often ask each person to scan the room.  I do this in order to let them know that they’re looking at their "families" – their “families at work.”  These are the individuals they spend most time with – sometimes even more than those who they go home to see at the end of their shifts!  I also let each worker know that when they look out for each others' safety in the workplace, they’re helping to ensure they’ll be able to go home to be with their families and friends.  This is their “WHY.”  This is the reason WHY they work so hard and the reason WHY they need to work as safely as possible! I make this statement and ask for their engagement because this is a part of building community in the workplace, in and through safety. 

Last month, I informed you that I would write more about building up
your safety culture by building a community, not just a culture for safety.  Here’s a few simple ways that you may want to start thinking about and acting upon in your own organizations.

l        1.  Celebrate Accomplishments and milestones that were difficult
to achieve by scheduling a dinner or lunch event and by having a motivational speaker to help you entertain, engage, and educate your workers with a different viewpoint and message.  I’m certain you understand that your own familiarity within your organization may be self-limiting and your perspective is not always readily accepted and embraced.  Your event can highlight milestones that may revolve around leading indicators that measure safe actions, levels of safety engagement, or a discussion of your path forward and plan for improving safety in 2013. 

   2.  Build up the Outside Community or community at-large by helping to support their specific needs that may focus on safety at home.  Many more organizations are educating youth within their communities by reaching out to young people with regard to first-aid and CPR, fire safety, or hazardous chemical use.  This is a win-win because a portion of these same workers will eventually become a part of your own workforce and will make it a safer one from what they have learned at a much earlier age.

        3.  Help Out in Hard Times.  Nearly everyone falls upon tough times.  Make sure that you and your co-workers reach out to the injured and ill, and even to those who have recently lost their jobs. Making hospital visits, sending cards, or even donations and monetary gifts shows that you care.  Making appropriate visitations when your co-workers lose a loved one will also show personal care and concern and will be remembered in ways that are not easily forgotten.  We appreciate and remember those who have made special efforts for our well-being in difficult times and it’s something that we should always find time to do.  All of this binds us together in ways that make our work groups and cultures much, much stronger. 

Building community in the workplace through safety is the platform and foundation that leads to greater trust, engagement, and so much more.  By building community through safety, and showing people that you want to care for their most basic needs, their personal safety – there is next to nothing that workers will not do to reciprocate.  And the reciprocation comes about by helping you meet your higher-level organizational goals and expectations that often relate to productivity and quality. 

Finally, as the late great Zig Ziglar has said, “You can have anything in
the world you want if you just help enough others get what they want.”  Taking care of each workers’ safety and helping them get home without injury or illness, ignites and embraces a form of reciprocity that can last for a very long time!