Some years ago, a colleague asked me to help coach a management team at one of her locations that was trying hard in safety, but she feared they were going down a path that we had experienced decades earlier when we worked together; her as a Chem Ops unit manager and me as the site safety manager. In those days, leading indicators were just becoming a thing, and the old traditional “safety incentive” programs were all the rage in safety. We were deep into the traditional approach and loving the “numbers” until we had a sad yet eye-opening experience. In her new role as a company director, she was worried about one of her facilities making the same mistakes we had made and asked if the SAFTENG team could “assess” their “state of safety.” We did, and this is the story…
The facility was one of the largest producers in the company but was only about two-thirds the size of the other facilities. However, they had about twice the injury rate as the other facilities. From the surface, one would imagine that production reigned over safety, and you would be CORRECT. So, some pressure was put on the management group to “fix safety.” No specifics were given, or a plan was developed; just the order from above to “fix safety.”
I have to step back in time to give this story some perspective. About five years before my colleague’s arrival, this facility had a full-time safety professional developing, implementing, and managing the facility’s first-ever formal safety program. It was a good program for the first evolution; strictly compliance-based programs, but well written with some excellent training packages. The safety pro knew what he was doing; clearly, the quality of their work was more than adequate at this stage of the safety program. But they lasted just over 2.5 years. Their exit interview was exactly what we would have expected… they left because “management stopped supporting the safety program.” Their evidence was clear: management ended the annual training, audits/inspections, etc.
After the safety professionals’ exit, management decided that, with the written program in place, they no longer needed a safety professional. Instead, the facility manager would assign the responsibilities to other managers on his staff for a period of time. This was intended to “drive ownership” by the staff.
