On this National Safety Day (4th March), my pranams to all the safety warriors who strive hard to prevent any harm (“Zero Harm” theme of this year) to our employees. This is a noble profession which seldom gets its recognition. We do not have a count of how many have they saved from harm, but they continue their missionary zeal with passion.
I have held this portfolio of safety for few years in my career. We have released policies, procedures, work instructions, training, PPEs, Tool-box talks, committees, but still accidents continued to happen (may be little lesser).
Then we realized it is do with the behavior of the employees on the job. Thus came the concept of BBS (Behavior Based Safety). BBS was derived out of Positive Psychology. Instead of catching people violating safety norms, can we identify them when they are adhering to the safety norms and recognize them for it. In psychology this is called positive reinforcement. BBS also stresses the need for peer pressure as a mode of bringing in the right behavior among the employees. Accidents are certainly further reduced when you implement BBS sincerely.
One of the challenges in bringing this safe behavior is to make each individual employee own their responsibility and be accountable to their actions. This is where I feel safety leaders have to move from being a leader to a Coach. What then is this “Safety Coaching“.
Safety coaching is about the process of partnering with your employees, conversing with them more often in a psychological safe space. These conversations are not confrontations which turn them out but engage them by empathetic listening. For this to happen we have to build trust through sincere understanding and appreciation of their circumstances. Trust plays a major role in the transformation of “Leader to Coach”.
During this National Safety Week we would embark on understanding this concept of Safety coaching through a series of articles which would be released every day during this week. Do stay tuned and your feedback are most welcome. If you would like to discuss any of these topics do reach out to us (M: 9884814509).
