How to Train Supervisors to be Safety Leaders, not Safety Cops

And build a positive safety culture in the process

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Safety First Journal, where I share practical insights, expert tips and industry updates from the world of Occupational Health and Safety.

We’ve discussed in past weeks some of the mistakes that new supervisors make regarding health and safety in the workplace, and this week I want to continue expanding on that point as front-line supervisors are so important to your overall health and safety program.

Do your front-line supervisors see themselves as safety leaders or safety cops?

In many companies, supervisors (and EHS professionals) are seen as enforcers of safety rules rather than influencers of safe behaviours. How many times do we see employees put their safety glasses on or slow down their forklift when they see a supervisor approaching? Like a driver speeding down the road, everyone slams on the brakes the minute they realize they’re being watched.

Problem is, like the cops, supervisors can’t be everywhere and often the undesirable behavior resumes the minute the supervisor walks away.

The continual challenge for supervisors and safety leaders is to find a way to influence behavior even when they’re not around.

So, let’s look at the difference between a safety cop and a safety leader. I'm sure you can think of examples of both from your professional experience.

Safety Cops

• Focus on rules and discipline

• Oriented towards catching mistakes and punishing them

• Always ready to quote regulations and company policy as a substitute for deeper communication on the “why” of safety

• Expect employees to already know expectations regardless of experience or training

• Think they know best how to address safety concerns in the workplace

Safety Leaders

• Encourage self-accountability and is oriented towards catching employees doing things right

• Model safe behavior, doesn’t just talk about it

• Communicate well with front-line employees using plain language that establishes trust and common ground

• Set clear expectations and reinforces them regularly and consistently

• Listen to worker’s concerns and act on them quickly

While there is certainly a role to play in correcting unsafe behaviors, too much emphasis on this style of leadership causes the following negative outcomes:

• Employees tend toward box-ticking behavior, that is, following safety rules because they have to, not because they want to.

• Buy-in among employees for safety procedures suffers.

• There’s lower overall trust in leadership (an us vs them mentality) because communication is hindered by fear of getting caught.

On the other hand, leaders with a strong influence on health and safety enhance your company’s culture by:

• Allowing workers to feel heard and respected, improving the overall buy-in on safety procedures.

• Promoting intrinsic motivation by getting workers to understand the reasons behind the rules.

• Using discipline-based compliance only for repeat offenders or willful disregard of safe behaviour.

So, how do we train front-line supervisors to be more of a safety leader and less of a safety cop?

1. Teach communication skills.

For leaders of any kind

• Practice active listening. Focus on the speaker, don’t interrupt, and summarize what you’ve heard.

• Ask open ended questions. If you ask questions with a clear yes or no answer, that’s all you’re likely to get. Instead, use questions that start with how, why or what if that encourage the speaker to open up and share.

• Stay calm and consistent. Not all feedback will be positive. It may not be what you want to hear. But by accepting the speaker’s view as being true from their point of view, based on their experiences you get honest feedback rather than fluff.

• Tailor your message to your audience. Front line employees will use a different tone than senior leadership or a group of specialized professionals. Avoid jargon, speak in everyday language and match your message to the audience you’re addressing.

• Follow up regularly. So much of a single communication is lost to memory soon after the conversation ends. To get your point across to any audience, you must frequently and regularly repeat and reinforce the message.

2. Coach the “Why” behind the rules.

Supervisors will get better buy-in when workers understand the reason why they are being asked to do something.

• Explain the thought process. People need to trust you before they will follow you. You build trust when you communicate the reasons why certain rules are procedures are in place, rather than some version of, “Do it because I said so.”

• Use specific experiences to validate the decisions. For example, “The reason I asked you to wear your safety glasses is because we had an incident last year where an employee had acid splash in their eyes and I don’t want to see that happen to you.”

3. Emphasize the need to model the behavior supervisors expect from their workers at all times.

Supervisors should never expect employees to do something they wouldn’t do themselves. There is zero chance of getting buy-in from workers if their leaders don’t follow the same procedures.

• Always wear the required PPE. If your workers have to wear hearing protection in a certain area, you better make sure you’re doing the same.

• Follow all safety procedures. If employees are to follow pedestrian paths, make sure that you are not the exception.

• If it’s not safe, don’t do it. Make sure your supervisors aren’t making the mistake of thinking, “Just this once,” and doing something unsafe for the sake of expedience. Once you set that precedent, it’s nearly impossible to put the genie back in the bottle.

Teaching front line supervisors to be leaders and influencers has a remarkable ripple effect on your organization. It builds trust between management and workers, turns safety into a shared organizational value rather than just another set of rules and helps sustain momentum over time compared to compliance and enforcement-based safety cultures.

Well, we’ve covered quite a lot. That’s all for now.

The Safety First Journal is published every Tuesday morning on LinkedIn and Substack. I also ghostwrite newsletter content and Educational Email Courses specifically for Health and Safety professionals. Feel free to reach out to dmoriarity@keystrokecommunications.com for more information.

For a free email course on how you can level up your workplace safety program, visit www.safetyproroadmap.com

Cheers,

Dan.