Many organizations had a great 2023 in terms of their safety performance. And while I am a huge advocate for celebrating our successes in safety, my support is contingent on one factor…
KNOW HOW we achieved our success. Celebrating blind luck is dangerous!
Organizations often celebrate sheer luck in safety performance, which sends the wrong message to everyone. To ensure it was clear WHAT we were celebrating and HOW we achieved our success in safety, three of my four former bosses would have me provide them with some critical data to communicate and celebrate HOW we exceeded our performance goal(s). This lengthy list of accomplishments went into a letter sent to every employee’s home with their Christmas gift.
This list would include items such as:
- # of EHS Action Items that were closed (usually around 1,000+ items)
- # of hours spent in safety training (thousands of hours, and the training content was rarely the same year-to-year)
- # of hours spent auditing/inspecting (permit audits, housekeeping inspections, working conditions inspections, etc.)
- # of PHA’s completed and the hours spent performing them
- % improvement in our internal auditing scores and 3rd party audits
- % improvement in our safety testing results
- # of Safety Contacts made by management (would be thousands)
- # of BBS Observations made and the % improvement in SAFE behaviors
- # of safety programs/practices reviewed and certified (Hundreds)
These are just some of the core items we would celebrate. And to be honest, it was always a moment that made me pause and realize all that we had accomplished. It was sort of rehabilitating for me and my teams to sit back and look at the numbers and the efforts made by so many. Too often, we feel like we don’t get the support we need – this exercise is a great way to remind us that it TAKES A TEAM to be successful in safety.
