Re-engage: Improving Safety Culture through Employee Participation
June is National Safety Month! Since 1996 the month of June has been dedicated to improving workplace health and safety across the United States. National Safety Month promotes safety discussions across organizations which focus on employee wellbeing, industrial safety, and safety for everyday life. Here at MEGAComfort we value the safety and wellbeing of all employees, which is why we will be focusing on how to reassess, re-evaluate, reengage, and recalibrate your workplace this month!
Understanding the Why
The first step to successful employee engagement is consistent communication. It is important to work with your employees to understand why an ergonomic or safety solution might be required. This leans on communication from those employees with firsthand experience in the job task. Your employees are the experts in their job tasks and should be consulted when investigating the root cause of a safety hazard. Providing your employees with regular opportunities to voice their safety concerns encourages a workplace culture that prioritizes employee health and safety. These opportunities can involve open door days, feedback boxes, weekly or monthly safety chats. Anything that enables your employees to speak up will help your organization to understand the why behind the hazard.
Accepting the How
Once the root cause has been determined, the next step towards successful employee engagement is identifying and accepting how a given solution will mitigate the hazard. Gaining mass acceptance and adoption of a solution will require education and awareness regarding the root cause, the hazard itself, and the solution. This will also rely on testing and trialing several solutions to gauge which is the best option for your organization. Collaborating with your employees and involving them throughout the trials is a great way to engage, learn from their experiences, gather feedback, and improve adoption of the selected solution. Remember, your employees are the experts, they know what will work, what won’t work, and what will impact productivity.
Implementing the Solution
Now that the root cause has been identified, and the solution has been accepted, the final step towards successful employee engagement is implementing the solution. This step is critical in fostering continued engagement, as an organization’s response to employee feedback and concern is highly correlated to an employee’s willingness to share. At this stage, the solution has been trialled and accepted on a small scale, but employee support is imperative for a successful, large-scale rollout of the solution. Management must be open to hearing employee feedback throughout the process, a cooperative and collaborative approach is a great way to ensure employees feel heard and validated in their feedback.