Potty Training (sort of) Your Employees - Implementing a Culture of Safety

Anyone who has or has ever had one or more nose miners around the house can understand how difficult the potty training war can be.  For those of you who pulled it off without nearly going mad, I envy you.  One of the single greatest things that has ever happened to me, minus being born and meeting my wife Heather was getting our kids out of diapers. 

Having twins can have its challenges.  My hope was to drum up a competition between the two and get them trained in less than a week.  With no experience around toddlers much less as a parent, this seemed like a brilliant solution.  Our first attempt got off to a great start.  Jack was just about ready, but Hunter could not have cared less.  The problem was that every time Jack would leave for the bathroom, Hunter would steal his toys.  To a toddler, this is basically an end of the world scenario, and so we were back to square one again.  While my ego took a hit, we kept working at it.  It took another ¾ of a year, but we eventually got the job done.  Halleluiah!  Hello extra $$$ each month, goodbye diapers.

Changing a culture of safety in business is a lot like potty training.   It isn’t something that will happen overnight, and it's going to test your will and patience from time to time.  You’re going to get pushback.  You’re going to get people kicking and screaming because it’s a lot easier to do things the old way instead of the new and improved way.  I believe most people are naturally inclined to avoid change, and the older we get the more stubborn we often get as well.  As a result, it’s going to take some time.

In order to get people to change, you have to understand two things: 1) your motivation and end goal, and 2) what makes them tick.  With us, our motivation was saving time and money.  For the boys, we needed to find out what would motivate them to change their lifestyle.  It took a few months and several different attempts, but we eventually figured it out.  Through trial and error, we found that they were motivated not to get their new train underwear wet.  It was as simple as that, but we had to try several things before we figured it out.  Bottom line: we never gave up.

Implementing a culture of safety can work the same way.  While you can appreciate the potential workers compensation cost savings, improved production, and reduced accident and lost time claims, your employees aren’t going to look at it the same way.  Finding their motivation can take some time and will be different for each person and/or company.  Maybe not worrying about getting injured at work will be enough.  Perhaps it’s an extra vacation day for hitting safety or no lost time benchmarks.  It could be an incentive program where they are rewarded with gift cards or company credits.  Or it’s an inter-company competitive campaign.  Whatever it may be, it’ll be a lot easier to create some buy-in once you figure out what makes them tick.

Just like with potty training, a complete culture change won’t happen overnight.  It may be frustrating at times, and you may take one step forward and two steps back from time to time.  Just keep reminding yourself why you are doing it, and don’t give up.  If you can help your employees align their goals with yours, you can work towards the same end and make life a lot easier. 

Potty training (sort of) your employees can take a little time and commitment, but it can pay big dividends in the end if you stick with it.

Andy Bertram CPCU, ARM-E
Risk Advisor
620 Main St
Red Wing, MN 55066
Phone: 651-800-6173
Fax: 651-388-8443

www.cobrown.com