How Smart Managers Can Balance Safety and Production Goals - and Why They Are Not Mutually Exclusive
Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of Safety Pro Weekly.
I’ve seen hundreds of incident reports in my career.
In this issue:
What managers miss when they look at safety goals vs production goals.
How workplace injuries hurt your chance of meeting production goals.
How managers can balance the demands of safety and production so they support each other and make the business better overall.
One of the most common themes of these incidents, as identified by the employees involved, is that they were rushing, distracted or not paying attention due to production targets. “It was getting late, and we had to get the product out the door or the customer was going to cancel the order,” or some variation on the theme. Many employees and managers seem to feel that when the production crunch is on, safety procedures are a quick and easy thing to set aside to save time.
And I get it … to some degree. But imagine in the rush to get this order out, someone gets seriously injured or key equipment gets damaged.
How far behind are you now?
All businesses are there to make money and timely, efficient production is a large part of the profit equation. Customer demands have to be met or there will be no more customers. And if the business doesn’t succeed, what’s the point of doing all this anyway? As a former colleague of mine always used to say, “I don’t want to be a part of the safest ship that never set sail.”
But I think many managers and workers are missing this key point.
“It’s not Safety vs Production: Working Safely Supports More Efficient Production”
They see safety as a speed bump on the road to productivity. In their view, taking the time to follow procedures, wear the correct PPE, and do the job safely is an added extra that can be dispensed with when production timelines are tight.
What they don’t see is the enormous cost of a safety incident in the workplace, especially if it occurs during a busy production time.
The Cost of Workplace Injuries
Workplace injuries can cost you in the form of incident investigation time, loss of production from the injured worker, overtime or reduced productivity and quality to bring in a replacement worker, property and equipment damage and distraction and lower morale from your workforce.
And this is assuming it’s not a serious accident, in which case the Ministry of Labour could come in and enforce orders to stop production until the situation is rectified or issue fines or worse.
These are just productivity losses, but there are also increased Worker’s Compensation premiums, increased insurance costs and loss of reputation.
What many managers don’t see is that safety professionals aren’t here to slow production down, we’re here to keep it going.
As the saying goes, “How you do anything is how you do everything,” and if your business is sloppy with safety, it’s likely to be sloppy with quality, production, customer service and everything else. In today’s competitive environment, companies must be the best they can in all facets of the business.
Why Most Managers Miss the Real ROI of Safety
Hello and Welcome to this week’s edition of Small Business Safety Pro.
How Safety Contributes to Productivity
In most workplaces, safety is seen as a cost of doing business.
Yet safety done well can actually contribute to the profitability of the business by:
Reducing downtime, disruptions and associated costs from accidents.
Reducing absenteeism and improving morale and engagement in the workforce. Workers who feel safe are more likely to stay in their workplace.
Promoting higher quality output. Safety and quality are often tied together because they require the same skillset. Well established procedures, good communication between management and workers and consistently followed and enforced processes.
How Smart Managers can Balance the Demands of both Safety and Production
Integrate Safety Into Workflow: Design workstations to be both efficient and ergonomic. Provide PPE at source so employees don’t have to go looking for it, wasting valuable time. Ensure emergency equipment such as first aid kits, spill cleanup kits and fire extinguishers are nearby to save time.
Measure Both Equally: Your workers probably know their production quotas and performance metrics. But are they knowledgeable about safety statistics and initiatives as well? Make sure they understand the responsibility to both.
Communicate the “Why”: Explain to teams how safe work prevents stoppages and costly rework. When workers know why they are doing something it’s much easier to get buy-in.
Reward the Right Behaviors: Recognize employees who meet both safety and production goals without cutting corners. Look for opportunities to catch workers doing something right and then call it out so others get the message that safety is something you value as a workplace.
5 Ways to Deliver an Effective Safety Talk
Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of Small Business Safety Pro.
Action Steps for Safety Professionals and Managers
Here are a few things you can do as a manager or safety pro to get started:
Audit current production processes for safety hazards and potential bottlenecks.
Talk to your team about safety. Nobody knows the job and the challenges faced better than the people who actually do the task every day. You’ll get valuable feedback on both safety and productivity.
Identify quick wins where safety improvements can also improve efficiency. Share these with your team and implement.
Commit to “no shortcuts” leadership, even under deadline pressure. I know it can be easier said than done, but doing things the right way, every time is a big key to overall success in business or any other endeavour.
The most important takeaway from today’s message is that safety and production aren’t enemies, they’re partners in sustainable success. Smart managers lead with both in mind, with the overall goal of operational excellence in safety, productivity, quality and customer service.
That’s it for this week, thanks for reading. Safety Pro Weekly is published every Tuesday on LinkedIn and Substack.
Struggling with a safety problem in your workplace? Let me know in the comments and I’ll see if I can help.
Until next week,
Cheers,
Dan.