(This is part one of a set of blog posts written to help leadership understand the differences in compliance versus engagement within industrial and corporate safety programs. In part one, Dimensions discusses compliance-driven programs. In part two, scheduled for Wednesday February 5th, we discuss the advantages of a caring, culturally driven safety program and then tie both together.)
PART 1
I would rather try to persuade a man to go along, because once I have persuaded him he will stick. If I scare him, he will stay just as long as he is scared, and then he is gone. -Dwight D. Eisenhower, U.S. general and 34th president (1890-1969)
What is your answer to the following leadership question? Is your corporate safety program founded through engagement or compliance? While many leaders spend very little time thinking about these two completely different approaches or believe the difference is probably irrelevant, the dissimilarities set the true tone for both organizational and business safety goals. It is through these two methodologies that workplace culture is shaped and grown, regardless of outcome.
With the strategy of compliance, the corporate safety program can often end up as an environment of enforcement to maintain normal safety conditions. This strategy, bureaucratic in style, often inhibits employee creativity, ownership, engagement and involvement. The compliance driven approach has a very constricted effect on safety programs. It is most often based on management objectives and legal requirements.
Because safety becomes yet another goal on the “to do” list for management, the compliance approach may result in safety being pushed aside when production demands increase and become top priority. In a compliance driven system, leadership might get the effort needed to meet minimum requirements, but this is usually temporary with management acting in a compulsory role.
Within this organizational culture, the employees know that safe practices exist to support management goals, not in the clear efforts to keep individuals safe. Unfortunately, this underlying motivation is quickly recognized by the employees. They see it, sometimes more clearly than the management that delivers it, and the real danger lies in the continuous maintenance. First, management must continue the enforcement in order to retain control. Without the involvement and engagement of each employee, the compliance driven system can break down. Secondly, this kind of safety enforcement strategy is quickly shared through the grapevine to new hires as they begin to understand and accept the culture as employees. Veteran personnel share their perceptions of management motives. They will describe to them what management believes, how management behaves, acts, and administers the program. These cultural norms and beliefs then get communicated across departments, often to the dismay of management. It is a continuous cycle of enforcement and ground floor perception. This mix most often offers only the unhealthiest of cultures and serious issue with employee morale.
In the next post, we will focus on the compassion and commitment of safety programs based on employee engagement within learning and caring cultures.
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This blog post on workplace safety and culture is brought to you by the team of professionals at Dimensions- OHS, Inc. a Certified B-Corp member. Dimensions is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina and are dedicated to responsibility, integrity, sustainability and world good.
Dimensions-OHS, Inc.
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Raleigh, NC 27615
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