After evaluating the safety and health program in your business, it’s time to work toward solutions for any of the issues, obstacles, and problems that arose during the evaluation.
Typically, there are certain obstacles facing the management and supervisors of this plan. And those tend to differ from those that the employees working under the plan face.
The common obstacles, along with actions that lead to solutions, include:
Supervisor Obstacles
- Fear of losing one’s job
- No money for needed changes
- Many people want change but are afraid to take responsibility for it
- No support from upper management
- No time or follow-through from upper management
- Competing priorities, e.g., production is number one ahead of safety
- Overwhelmed with workload
- Turnover too high
- Double standards
- Lack of trust and poor ethics within the organization
- Lack of open communication and listening
Need better results from your safety program? Join BLR’s live webinar, “How to Strengthen the Role of Front-Line Supervisors in Carrying Out Your Safety Program Strategy,” on November 14 at 1:30 p.m. EST. Find out more.
Possible Solutions for Supervisor’s Obstacles
To address these valid concerns and obstacles from the supervisor, management must take some deliberate action. They must:
- Support.
- Provide time and resources.
- Hold people accountable.
- Balance competing pressures.
Everyone must play by the same rules. And to address their personal concerns, the supervisor must take personal responsibility, stop worrying, trust, and risk.
Employee Obstacles
- Supervisor is not willing to listen and support.
- Communication is one way (top-down).
- Organization is not in alignment on safety, e.g., production, not safety, is number one at the line level.
- Supervisors are not willing to hear problems and receive feedback.
- People are not willing to take personal responsibility and are too quick to shift blame.
- Lack of consistency and follow-through causes past successful efforts to fade away.
Possible Solutions for Employee’s Obstacles
To address these valid concerns and obstacles from the employee supervisors must take the following deliberate actions:
- Support.
- Be open.
- Risk being vulnerable and open up.
- Get management to support and provide time and resources.
- Realize and commit that this is a long-term effort.
The employee must also be willing and eager to take personal responsibility, commit to the cause, trust, and communicate.
Effective safety programs start with supervisors. Find out how to better train your supervisors at BLR’s live webinar, “How to Strengthen the Role of Front-Line Supervisors in Carrying Out Your Safety Program Strategy,” on November 14. Learn more here.
In tomorrow’s Advisor, we’ll look at how crucial supervisors are to safety and health compliance, plus we’ll get a sneak peek at an upcoming webinar on the role of frontline supervisors in effective safety programs.