A survey recently revealed that the things that motivate workers to buy in to safety procedures are different than what drives supervisors to pay attention to safety.
In a recent safety for Safety News Alert, safety managers were asked which training technique they found most effective for increasing safety adoption among employees and supervisors. The study found that employees want personal stories and anecdotes, while supervisors were more focused on regulations and compliance.
Motivating Employees
More than one third of the employee respondents said that sharing personal stories was the best way to increase safety buy-in. 18% said showing pictures would assist in safety buy-in. Respondents were also given the choice of “other” and were allowed to fill in a suggestion box. Some of the employee training strategies were: making the program interactive, company safety newsletter, and Power Point presentations and quizzes.
Motivating Supervisors
Supervisors and managers were more concerned with rules and statistics, unlike their employees. 29% of supervisors said reviewing workplace policy and discipline would help increase safety buy-in in employees and supervisors. 20% said statistics would be a good strategy. Some of the “other” responses included: pointing out their liability/accountability, trying to get them to see workers’ point of view, and showing the effect on the bottom line.