How to make safety engagement part of your organizational culture

What you need to know

• Reinforce a safety culture with employee engagement through recognition and incentives.
• Build team trust by communicating safety habits that protect their well-being.
• Support a psychologically safe work environment with habit-reinforcement tools like trainings and surveys.

Embodying a safety culture

It's one thing to create best practices or safety training. It's another for teams to embody strong habits every day. One way to incorporate precautions into your employees’ daily tasks is to tie safety to your company core values.

Workplace incidents often arise when front-line workers feel unsupported by their organization. Aligning safety and health practices to core values shows teams that their security comes first and is the standard for your business.

Core values help employees navigate team-specific challenges while also supporting their culture, so employees and managers can confidently act, communicate with one another and identify hazardous behaviors or conditions.

Employee engagement tip: Tie positive behaviors to incentives

Align employee recognitions with core values, and encourage peers and managers to call out when they see a best practice in action. You can also issue incentives for completing or revisiting safety training.

Recognitions boost morale and give team members examples of safety precautions and standards in action. Incentives ensure continual learning and keep employees up to date with best practices and procedures.

Earning employee buy-in and trust

Building employee trust starts with communication and commitment. For organizations to fully commit to safer working conditions, address the physical and psychological aspects of workplace safety.

Organizations can build employee trust through transparent communication and proactive action—like offering training resources, updated signage or gear for hazardous conditions. Or taking action when employees voice needs or concerns builds employee trust.

Strong employee trust leads to a more engaged workforce that’s more likely to report injuries and communicate safety concerns. They're also more likely to report to work. Less absenteeism means less stress and less risk for team members.

Employee engagement tip: Develop leaders’ communication habits

Train leaders on tactics for listening and communicating safety procedures effectively. Whether during department meetings or one-on-ones, it’s up to leaders to help team members understand the part they play.

Encourage open, constructive feedback on safety measures with your team. Whether they’re front-line workers, corporate teams or employees out on the field, leadership should pull in feedback regarding safety implementation, execution and results using a variety of feedback loops.

That might look like an anonymous feedback inbox, survey check-ins or space at the end of a meeting for employees to add agenda items. Leaders can also use performance reviews and recognition to encourage team members to share feedback on the company’s approach to safety standards.

Empowering workers through psychological safety

Often less obvious—yet no less important—is potential psychological safety concerns. Workplace incidents increase when employees feel unsupported, psychologically unsafe or less empowered to speak up.

It's important for workers to feel their needs and well-being are supported by their leadership. According to McKinsey, psychological safety consistently predicts a team's performance, productivity and safety.

Tools like additional training and feedback opportunities empower employees to identify and address safety hazards before they happen. Involving employees at this level increases employee engagement. It also shows that their well-being and security are valued.

Employee engagement tip: Give all voices a platform to offer feedback

Offer tools and resources to empower your employees. Use employee feedback surveys to capture ideas to proactively address safety issues. Use learning and development opportunities to help employees grow professionally with courses or mentors.

You can use employee engagement initiatives like employee resource groups (ERGs) to create psychologically safe spaces for underrepresented voices. This encourages conversations between leadership and diverse perspectives. By implementing several feedback opportunities, you can gather valuable information to provide a proactive, safe culture, rather than a reactive one.

Make safety part of your work culture

A safe environment contributes to employee engagement and vice versa. Embracing employee engagement opportunities, like recognition, keeps best practices top of mind. Leadership development strengthens communication, which also earns employee trust. And employee tools like mentorship, training and ERGs make employees feel heard and empowered.

More engaged teams productively and proactively address safety before accidents happen. Prioritizing safety demonstrates an organization's care for its employees. In turn, employees are more likely to bring their best selves to work. 

Create a behavior-based safety culture with our white paper, “Workplace safety: Making it human.”