A Culture of Safety

Last week, I looked at how recognition- praising, listening to and valuing coworkers- builds a culture of engagement and spurs productivity gains. This week, I’d like to note how recognition serves basic human safety. I’m again drawing from superb research from the Gallup Organization’s collaboration with the cloud-based database Workhuman.

I’m not talking about psychological safety, which my colleague Amy Edmondson has explored in depth and with great insight. I’m talking about old-fashioned accidents and mishaps: slips, trips, and falls, muscle strains, fractured elbows, twisted ankles, smashed fingers. As well as debilitating everyday repetitive stress injuries, which have become a familiar part of sedentary work.

Gallup demonstrates a clear link between recognition and physical safety. For example, simply by doubling the number of employees who report being recognized for good work in the previous week, organizations can decrease safety incidents by an average of 22%. This translates into an estimated cost savings of nearly $3 million a year per 10,000 employees. Savings for hospitals are far higher– nearly $6 million each year per 10,000. Manufacturing also comes in above the mean.

This makes intuitive sense for a number of reasons.

When people feel cared about, they are more likely to care about others. Which means they pay attention to how those around them are doing. They keep an eye out for colleagues who might seem rushed, exhausted, or unsure how to operate a piece of equipment. They notice potential problems, offer help, and invest in their workmates’ success. Because they care, they are more aware.

The authors of the Gallup study also note that recognition increases employee commitment to quality. Accidents diminish when excellence is valued over cutting corners, a job well done viewed as preferable to hiding mistakes. By contrast, employees who feel under-recognized and undervalued are more likely to be haphazard, to ramshackle along. They assume no one will notice because nobody cares.

Diving into the link between recognition and safety reminded me of a global mining company I worked with some years ago. While they had previously maintained an exceptional safety record, a recent string of minor accidents had begun undermining their reputation. Several senior site managers responded to the news by pushing their people harder, which only intensified the situation.

Coincidentally, the company, under new leadership, was then rolling out its first-ever employee satisfaction survey at every site worldwide. One set of questions sought to determine whether employees believed their contributions were seen and valued by their managers, and whether they felt comfortable raising concerns related to safety. Combing through the data, the unit evaluating survey results noticed a strong correlation between the number of safety incidents at each site and the degree to which individuals felt recognized and heard.

Given the enormous human and financial costs of mining accidents, this grabbed leadership’s attention.

After casting about, the company came up with a novel idea for addressing the problem. Rather than hiring only mining engineers as site supervisors as they traditionally had, they decided to expand the pool to include those with professional experience in listening and caring for others. The group included EMTs, nurses, counselors, teachers, and social service providers.

Once these new employees were in place, site safety began improving at a surprisingly rapid clip, and relations between site teams and local communities grew more harmonious. Working side-by-side with a more diverse batch of colleagues, mining technicians became more sensitive to human needs of their teams. They were readier to acknowledge and praise their achievements, too. Over time, recognition and caring became embedded in the company’s culture. The result? Both engagement and safety flourished.

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