by Toni Shibayama
“Leadership driven” goes beyond showing interest in a safety initiative. It means that company leadership is actively educating and communicating. This is critical because if employees don’t see a continued interest in this initiative, they will lose interest themselves. They can easily interpret the lack of communication as a loss of interest at the leadership level.
Many well-meaning business owners create a safety and wellness program but don’t give it the attention it needs, and as a result, it doesn’t create the desired objectives, such as reducing workers’ compensation costs. Any type of safety and wellness program is an investment in your employees. It’s ultimately about creating a caring and wellness-focused culture. A caring workplace environment focused on employee well-being and safety protects your staff and saves you money, making it a win-win for workers and leaders alike. But when that culture doesn’t exist, or is taken for granted, the results can impact the bottom-line.
As with any new program, your employees need to buy into it in order for it to work the way it is intended. Your employees will not be on board with this new wellness and safety program unless they feel it is important to the leadership team. This entire initiative needs to be leadership driven. After all, if the boss doesn’t care, why should they? If your employees see that you are truly interested in the success of this project, most will follow suit.
Creating this program can’t just be about saving money on workers’ comp insurance. Instead, it should be presented and run as an employee wellness and safety initiative. Great companies care about the well-being of their employees and they prioritize creating and maintaining safe work environments. As a result, their employees feel taken care of and are more likely to remain loyal to the company. Well-run companies have fewer workers’ comp claims and recurring losses.
How can you make your wellness and safety program more leadership driven?
Every organization has a culture; some outstanding, some lousy, and many in between. Culture is difficult to change when imbedded in an organization. A company’s risk culture can be determined by assessing whether “doing the right thing” wins out over “doing whatever it costs.” A lack of a risk management culture can lead to debilitating injury, loss of life, poor financial results and business failure.
Managing risk is a process that begins at the very top of an organization. It must become a habit practiced by everyone in the company, from senior leaders and middle managers, to supervisors and laborers.
In his book The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg writes about how when Paul O’Neill became CEO at Alcoa in 1987 he started by making a speech to a group of investors that owned stock in the company. They were expecting him to talk about grand plans to grow the business. He shocked them by saying “I want to talk about employee safety. While we have a better safety record than most in our industry, I intend to make Alcoa the safest company in America”. The investors were confused because he didn’t say anything about profits. Some even called their stock broker immediately after his speech and sold their stock. It turned out to be one of the worst investment mistakes they ever made because within a year the stock hit a record high. In this case the CEO, supported by the management teams and boards of directors, created a risk culture that had a powerful influence on risk behaviors at all levels in the company.
What Paul O’Neill accomplished was admirable. But the term “leadership driven” reaches far beyond the boss. It means that all key VPs, managers, and supervisors are on board and understand the initiative just as well as the boss does. You need to be stern but honest when it comes to dealing with employees. You need to let them know that you are the employee manual, and you will do what needs to be done to enforce what is written. Don’t be afraid to be the bad guy—it’s in their best interest and the best interests of the company. At the end of the day it comes down to a very simple thought; treat an injured employee the way you would want to be treated if you were injured on the job. And that will happen if you keep this in mind:
- Where did we fail in the past regarding health, wellness and safety? Did we not provide clear and concise procedures to be followed?
- What are the best tools to apply and who can provide them?
- What is the specific plan for their company and who is responsible for making that happen?
A good portion of leadership is setting good examples and know that it’s all about cause and effect. When an employee is injured to berate them as being “lazy” or “stupid,” and certainly not in front of a room full of that person’s co-workers. As much as they are concerned for the well-being of their co-worker, you can bet they are also watching how you react. Did you get flustered, critical, angry, all of the above? Did you respond quickly and with the right course of action (on-site treatment, nurse triage, call 911?)
Leadership is not a one-and-done thing; communication should be ongoing and thorough. Some ways to continue the dialogue are to simply communicate successes with your team, including loss-free periods, new procedures that are working, positive feedback you get from safety vendors, and even changes in the way your insurance company classifies the business. Let your employees know that these wins are a result of their efforts, so they know the initiative is working.
Finally, you need to be aware that some supervisors mean well and have the greatest of intentions, but their psychological makeup is not that of a true leader. And you can often evaluate where they may be lacking simply by observing how they interact with the employees. By using this measuring stick, you may discover that some education might be needed for those tasked with delivering that leadership. Only then will they be capable to take safety commitment to the next level.
These are the steps that can help your company better illustrate what management commitment to safety should be, and that those in charge are doing the job when it comes to the company’s vision for safety.
Taking a leadership driven approach to reducing your workers’ compensation costs can have a positive impact in various areas of your business, and this approach has a fantastic return on investment.
Toni Shibayama is a Broker/Risk Consultant for S&K Insurance in Southern California. She has more than 15 years experience in risk management, job safety, Workers’ Compensation, wellness and HR consulting. Toni is also the author of “The Private Club General Manager’s Big Game Playbook.”
She can be reached at toni@sk-insurance.com and by phone at 213.627.5204.
