Safety Leadership: changing culture, shaping strategy and building buy-in.
You know it. We know it. Others sometimes don’t see it.
Health and safety aids businesses to improve practices, performance and profits: driving your organisation’s culture forward to become a safer, better business.
There has been widespread discussion in the business world about the challenges of recruitment and retention. From 2019 to 2023, employee turnover rates rose by 7.7 per cent in the UK.
If your business is concerned about retaining talent, one area of opportunity may be driving health and strategy beyond compliance, to enhance employee health, demonstrate the shared values of your people and boost staff morale.
To guide a health and safety strategy forward, you need support across the entire organisation – and that starts at the top. Attention from senior leadership will drive any agenda – especially in the early stages of implementing change, including:
- Building trust
- Using the right vocabulary and messaging
- Demonstrating return on investment
- Inspiring everyone to become a safety champion
Connecting the dots between a business strategy, and the health and safety plan will promote the desired culture and assist in achieving your business objectives.
We at AfterAthena recognise the importance of ditching the acronyms in favour of plain language, both in general terms and in regard to specifics related to your industry. But it’s not just about your vocabulary.
It pays to remember that while we might be approaching a topic from a health and safety perception or a compliance angle, there will be a commercial perspective.
- 64 per cent of investors look to back businesses aligned with their values.
- Health and Safety investment across your business and supply chain can reduce lost-time injury rates by 47%
- Almost six in ten employees choose a workplace based on shared values and expect their CEO to take a stand on societal issues.
- For every £1.00 invested in the mental health of your people, there’s a return of £5.30.
Relating any solution back to benefits that resonate with key groups or an entire department will strengthen any case to deliver the desired changes.
A good indication of when this is working well is when people come to talk to you earlier on – not just asking for help retrospectively to make something safer.
People require to be motivated, meaning staff who have these needs fulfilled will be likely to be more committed and diligent in their workplace environment.
The pandemic demonstrated that taking a forward-looking approach to health and safety that is preventive rather than responsive makes businesses more resilient.
Now, it’s time for senior leaders to capitalise on this mindset change and work as closely with their organisation and become strong safety leaders.
Ultimately, your policy and arrangements provide real business value to your organisation, paying attention to the vision, strategy, progress and the benefits you’re delivering.
Whether you employ a dedicated health and safety professional or assign secondary health and safety responsibilities to an existing role, this is an integral, essential position for your business as it moves forward in health and safety development to protect people and improve business performance.
The role definitely changes as your maturity improves and leadership starts to see it as more of a strategic adviser.
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