Page 56 - OHS, June 2024

TRAINING: SMART GOALS
have heard about, because that’s going to be relevant and make the most impact,” she explains. “For example, employees might come to you with hazards that they’ve identified and that maybe have been causing some issues. I would identify specific safety hazard risks or other areas for improvement.”
This helps management and safety managers remain proac- tive and not reactive when it comes to safety planning. Ideally, the goals being set should be out ahead of any possible problems.
“When you have identified those goals, you need to communi- cate them to everyone that’s taught — management down to em- ployees,” Hook says. “But more than just communicating, you need to address why the goal matters. You have to address the ‘why’ be- hind it and who it’s going to impact. It’s important to involve your team and be transparent on the need for the goals ... that way, ev- eryone is on the same page.”
Once a goal is identified and underway, it’s important to focus on the “measurable” part of the SMART acronym. Different meth- ods to measure progress could be post-training assessments, tabu- lating the percentage of workers receiving training, and calculating average scores on training, for example.
“You want to make sure that there’s some type of metric that you can measure these goals by,” Hook stresses. “It’s important to celebrate when goals are hit and training wins are hit.
“And always be flexible and adjust as needed, based on results and feedback,” she adds. “Your work environment will evolve,
CORPORATE PROFILE
BUILDING SAFETY AWARENESS AND LOWERING WORKPLACE ACCIDENTS
In our 70+ years, Safety
Jackpot has helped com-
panies engage employees,
build safety awareness, and
dramatically lower workplace
accidents. Clients include
3M, Pepsi, Blue Diamond
Almonds, Google, Apple,
FedEx, City of Los Angeles,
Kraft Foods, Coca-Cola, Hil-
ton, Marriott, Four Seasons
Hotels, Neutrogena and thousands of others. In 1990, Buck Peavey created the Jack- pot gamecard incentive system. Using gamification (specifically a scratch off game- card delivering points and chances towards giant drawing sweepstakes prizes...) the ROI results skyrocketed for clients. Safety Jackpot has since become the world’s top performing and “most used” safety program. Today, Safety Jackpot stands having helped thousands of companies drop millions of dollars to their bottom-line profits. More importantly, Safety Jackpot has saved tens of thousands of injuries and lives.
new hires will come on, so these trainings will have to adjust and change over time.”
Avoiding Pitfalls
Most of the problems that occur with SMART goal planning re- ally come down to misapplying the method.
“It’s important to look at the acronym SMART itself when you’re thinking of pitfalls,” Hook explains. “For example, not being specific enough, or not fleshing out the ‘whys’ behind the goals. If you simply create a goal but are not specific, then you’re going to have a hard time getting buy-in from key stakeholders. Along with that, you can’t have a goal and not communicate it — you have to tell those key stakeholders and your employees. Also, not having a relevant goal will prevent you from improving metrics. If the goal isn’t relevant, you’re not going to see an improvement in injuries or incidents going forward.”
A big issue Hook says she sees is non-attainability or an impos- sible timeframe. “If we say, ‘we’re going to have all our employees trained on X by tomorrow,’ that is not realistic,” she underscores.
Last but not least, Hook cautions that flexibility should be a key part of the process, saying, “Goals might need to be adjusted based on your results and then feedback that you get.”
David Kopf is the publisher and executive editor of Occupational Health & Safety magazine. He can be reached at dkopf@1105media.com
Safety Jackpot
safetyjackpot.com
PO Box 14100 Lenexa, KS 66285
Contact Information
1-800-235-2495 info@safetyjackpot.com
Request Free Sample Kit & Demo www.safetyjackpot.com/ohs624
54 Occupational Health & Safety | JUNE 2024
www.ohsonline.com