Excellence in SafetyGrowing a Safety Culture

Presented by:

a presentation by:

Darrell Lingk CIH CSP CHMM

&

Steve Gasowski

What We Plan to Convey?

• A practical approach to elevate your organization’s safety culture,

• Identify who typically influences safety the most in organizations,

• Provide a case study of one approach we created and implemented at CDOT; and,

• Provide examples of leading indicators that help us measure performance.

is essential in the

growth of a culture that supports and

promotes strong health and safety performance

across an organization.

Leadership

Why Grow Your Safety Culture?An organization’s safety culture comprises the collective beliefs, attitudes and work practices of management & employees.

A high-performing safety culture is one that:

• Has visible management commitment to safety,• Portrays high levels of trust between managers

and employees, • Promotes open & honest incident reporting, • Demonstrates a low level of risk-taking

behaviors,• Motivates and recognizes safe work behaviors;

and, • Allows employees to provide input and

innovation for continuous process improvement.

Where Do I Start?Understand your current safety culture:

• Is your safety process based on compliance or behavioral methodologies?

• Does your organization emphasize production over safety?

• Do your supervisors:o Intimidate your employees?o Lead by example?o Know what hazards their employees

face?o Prevent and correct unsafe work

practices?o Motivate and encourage their staff to

work safely?Promoting and applying consistent and sustainable safe work behaviors in Everything We Do!

Employee Empowerment

Employee empowerment is crucial to build a positive safety culture.

Employees must have the freedom and authority to make proper, safe decisions

in performing their job.

Confident, safe decision-making will only come when employees have the information, skills and support to do their job effectively; and, without retribution.

True Empowerment Competence and Control

President

Vice President

Supervisor

Manager

Employee

Supervisor

The Influence of Leadership

Employee

Employee Employee Employee

Employee Employee

Employee Employee Employee

Manager

Building Trust A

crucial step• Get out and talk to your employees.

• Explain why we need to make changes.

• Follow-through with promises.

• Educate your population; do not lecture.

• Have humility; take ownership of mistakes.

• Respect traditions, positions, and organizational history.

Preparing to Implement Your ProcessCustomize your approach to your organization’s management structure

• Identify key positionso Where are the problems?

o Influential positions (people)

• Train the influencers first?o Make them your safety advocates

o Use your leaders in your training to inspire employees

A Case Study• Founded in 1910

• Divided into five operational regionso Nine maintenance/traffic sectionso Regions led by Regional Transportation

Directoro One Regional Safety Officer assigned to

each region

• Average 3,200 full-time employeeso Approx. 75% = maintenance/traffic

employees

• Maintain over 23,000 total lane miles:o Road & Bridge o Right of way maintenanceo Snowplow operationso Avalanche/rockslide mitigationo Emergency response

Promoting and applying consistent and sustainable safe work behaviors in Everything We Do!

CDOT has a vertical

management

structure

CDOT Before Excellence in Safety

2009 2010 2011 2012 20130

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400358 363 352 349 357

Annual Worker’s Compensation ClaimBefore EIS

Compliance-based programs

Lagging indicator goals

Trendy, canned training

Regional message delivery

Reactive safety policies

Safety incentives

Employee entitlement

Our Guiding Principle

Focus on one common and realistic mission

Promote and apply consistent and

sustainable safe work behaviors in

Everything We Do!

Engage all levels of the organization.

Supervisor/employee interaction with Safety Engagements.

Goals based on leading vs. lagging indicators.

Focus efforts on real problems.

Recognize employees for “consistent” safe work behaviors.

Sustain program momentum with new products and training.

How CDOT is achieving Excellence

Promote and apply consistent and sustainable safe work behaviors in

Everything We Do.

Promoting and applying consistent and sustainable safe work behaviors in Everything We Do!

Safety Engagements

Allow a “management-by-walking” approach to improve safety.

A safety-focused discussion between supervisors and their employees at the job site.

A tool for supervisors to use to coach consistent, safe work behaviors.

Allow supervisors and employees to exchange ideas.

Something a supervisor should formally prepare and plan for before meeting with their employees.

Best performed using the Six Keys of a Quality Safety Engagement guidelines.A proven, effective tool

to improve your safety

culture.

Be prepared

Lead by example

Discuss the importance of performing a Pre-Job Hazard Assessment

Focus the engagement on your recent injuries or accidents

Prompt employees to ask questions and give feedback

Always provide positive and/or constructive feedback

The Six Keys of a Quality Safety Engagement

Recognition programs acknowledge and reinforce the accomplishments of employees.

Recognition is more about long-term goals.

Sincere and legitimate praise should be the default “incentive” for your employees.

Recognizing Excellence

A simple “good job” or “thank you” has a tremendous impact on employee morale, loyalty, and confidence.

Promoting and applying consistent and sustainable safe work behaviors in Everything We Do!

Excellence Recognized

Excellence in Safety is recognized by CDOT’s Safety

Champions & Safety Leaders

Safety Champions are products of Safety Leaders

Excellence in Safety

Before and AfterBefore EIS

Compliance-based programs

Lagging indicator goals

Trendy, canned training

Regional message delivery

Reactive safety policies

Safety incentives

Employee entitlement

After EIS

Behavior-based process

Leading indicator goals

In-house, focused training

Centralized message delivery

Proactive safety procedures

Individual recognition

Employee empowerment

Status-Quo Incident Rate

Decreasing Incident Rate

High-PerformingSafety Culture

CDOT After Excellence in Safety

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015150

175

200

225

250

275

300

325302

290 286

266

230

Annual Worker’s Compensation Claims

CDOT’s Leading Indicators

Safety EngagementsOver 24,000+ performed

Safety Champions1,200 employees recognized

Safety Champion II400 employees recognized

Safety Leader40 supervisors recognized

Excellence in Safety

Lessons learnedWe are three years into our process.

Along the way we learned some valuable lessons:

Changing behaviors is hard work.

Expect resistance at all levels.

You will not convince everyone.

You may have to reinforce the same message several times.

Results may vary across organization.

You Need to Be Patient!

Concentrate on the “people”• What is management’s commitment?

o Support for new safety initiativeso Accountability and recognition of employees

• What are employees saying?o Trust in managemento Trust in new products, polices and processes

• What are employees doing? o Safe work behaviorso Peer-peer supporto Innovation and process improvement

Improving Our Safety Culture

How will we know?

Your improvements can be measured and

observed

Promoting and applying consistent and sustainable safe work behaviors in Everything We Do!

Questions?

Thank YouDarrell Lingk, CIH CSP CHMMdarrell.lingk@state.co.us303-757-9465

Steve Gasowskisteven.gasowski@state.co.us303-757-9575