Page 14 - Occupational Health & Safety, June 2017

SAFETY MANAGEMENT
Ensure that the safety culture at your company is one that promotes open discussions without retribution, one that promotes the con- cept of taking care of each other, one that promotes no tolerance for taking unmitigated or uncontrolled risks.
we will tackle the process thinking mindset in more detail which helps explain how bulletproof employees rise within organi- zations. For now, let’s just say that bullet- proof employees are a direct output, a result of a process leadership has in place. They rise within organizations because that is the way leadership designed the process.
So, what is the problem? What is the is- sue? Why should we care about even one bulletproof employee in our organization? Contrary to most conventional thinking, the output, in this case, the bulletproof em- ployee, is not the point of origin for the is- sue. The design of the process that created the bulletproof employee is the culprit. In statistics, everything is inevitable given a chance. Risk-taking is a chance for some- thing unwanted or unanticipated to occur. This means that even one bulletproof em- ployee within your organization can cause a significant inflection point in your or- ganization’s ability to exceed customer re- quirements concerning substandard safety culture, loss productivity, bottom line detractors, injuries, illness, and fatalities. The issue is that bulletproof employees rep- resent a flaw in the design of a leadership process that needs correction to achieve what most companies aspire to be: the best value, most reliable, lowest risk provider of its product or services.
Why Do Bulletproof Employees Behave the Way They Do?
Besides a flawed process, why do bullet- proof employees do what they do? Why do they take the unnecessary risks? The reason is quite simple. They do so because taking risks makes perfect sense to them at that moment in time. If things make sense, hu- man behavior dictates pursuit of them. In this case, if it makes sense not to wear safety glasses, then they will not be worn. The risk of not wearing safety glasses does not out- weigh the trouble of wearing them in the mind of the bulletproof employee.
The two primary factors influencing workplace safety are human behavior and workplace processes. Realistically, both are an accurate reflection of leadership. Focusing on these two elements is the key to implementing a sustainable and effec- tive safety management system. Focusing more on workplace process improvement inherently and positively affects employee behavior and reduces the likelihood of
nine will sustain a fatal workplace illness, and 72 will now have an illness they did not have when they left home this morn- ing. These statistics are jaw-dropping and represent the human side of things.
The NSC estimates that the impact of these cases on the U.S. economy is over $383 million a day, or $266,362 for every minute that passes. Fatalities are costing more than $126 million a day. Why is un- derstanding this important? Because there is a financial windfall for those organiza- tions that choose to proactively protect their employees. The NSC estimates that $36,000 goes back into the bottom line every time there is an avoided medically consulted injury. At a 7% ROI, that means protecting over $557,000 in sales for ev- ery prevented medically consulted injury. When it comes to preventing a fatality, the bottom line gets to keep $1.42 million while protecting over $20 million in sales. The NSC estimates that there is a 4 to 1 savings for indirect costs over direct costs for prevented injuries. There is an excellent business case for taking action and for im- plementing world-class safety management systems in your organization.
The NSC offers a journey to excellence which in part provides guidance on how to improve safety culture and reduce in- jury and illness rates. When you combine leadership and employee engagement, the result is an enhanced safety culture and lower injury and illness rates. There are many independently performed studies by international organizations that reach the same conclusion. Leaders and organiza- tions that foster a culture of high employee engagement outperform those with less en- gaged employees. The performance metrics results are celebrated in terms of higher op- erating income, net income, and earnings per share. The metrics performance is the result of a leadership process that led to improved employee morale, increased pro- ductivity and process efficiencies.
What Are Bulletproof Employees and How Do They Rise to Power? Who are bulletproof employees anyway?
Bulletproof employees surface in many forms: the quiet ones; the loud ones; the re- served ones; the uninitiated ones.
The quiet bulletproof employees often blend in well with others. They keep to themselves, buck the system in ways that can be difficult to detect, and are passive ag- gressive. They don their safety glasses only when they notice the safety professional walking their way. Like all bulletproof em- ployees, the quiet ones take unmitigated risks and are a detriment to any high-per- forming and sustainable safety culture.
The loud ones are easy to spot. They are vocal about their view of the dumb safety rules in meetings and during employee conversations. They exhibit a sense of enti- tlement almost as if they have a choice as to whether they work safely or not. These em- ployees do not bother to don a pair of safety glasses regardless of who is in their pres- ence. The loud ones are a clear indicator of leadership’s ineffectiveness in establishing a safe culture. They typically are viewed as the voice of reason, a vocal champion, to other employees.
The reserved bulletproof employee is of- ten seen as informal leaders by their peers. The reserved one can temper the loud one and engage the quiet one. They will have their safety glasses on most of the time but complain about having to do so. At the first opportunity, regardless of hazard, they will take them off.
The uninitiated bulletproof employee is the one who takes the risk because he or she is not aware of the danger. This one does not wear the provided safety glasses because most others do not while perform- ing the same work task.
All four types of bulletproof employees have their reasons for taking dangerous risks during their work day. Each acts out their defiance differently. They all repre- sent a hazard to themselves, others around them, and to their employer’s risk portfolio which connects the financial bottom line.
How do bulletproof employees rise within an organization? What are the fer- tilizers and the energies that keep their ap- petite for risky behavior alive? In a little bit,
14 Occupational Health & Safety | JUNE 2017
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