Believing in Safety: One Company’s Approach to Closing in On Zero Incidents

By Karen Cates.

OSHA’s Safe + Sound week is coming up August 13-19.  Why is it that despite the best intention and prevention, people still get hurt or worse while on the job?

This question was the premise for a consulting engagement several years ago. My client had asked, “How do we make safety top of mind for all our employees, all the time?”  I was at corporate headquarters with my notebook and a list of questions – doing my research on the company, its leaders, and their safety message.

I met with the COO and the Chief Logistics Officer. But when I had finally made my way to the Chief Safety Officer’s office, I was stunned by its neat, minimalist appearance.  I expected a command center with phones ringing and reports strewn on all the surfaces.  Instead I found a quiet man sitting behind his desk, not a piece of paper in sight.  The computer was tucked at the far end of the L-shaped desk, and the screen was off.  The only other things on the desk were a book about St. Katherine of Alexandria and a crystal ball set on a metal base shaped like a dragon.

I stopped short in the doorway. “Well,” I said. “I had a list of questions to ask you, but obviously we need to talk about this instead.”  And I playfully closed my notebook and put my papers away.  Pointing to the objects on the desk, “Please tell me about these.”

He explained how proud he was of the company’s safety statistics, measured in incidents per mile.  The company consistently beat the industry average.  “But,” he said, “this isn’t good enough.  We are striving for zero incidents.  Period.”

The CSO told me he felt that they had done all they could with traditional means to put safety into the minds and hearts of their people.  They appealed to them through their families: “We want everyone to go home safely every day.”  They created incentive programs and communication pathways to help the company identify unsafe practices, situations or events.  Safety had become an integral part of the strategy for operations.  All these things drove their better-than-industry-average incident rate.

So why the book about Saint Katherine? “I needed to take our whole approach to the next level, think WAY outside the box,” the CSO told me.  The book was a hagiography – a special type of biography designed to reveal a saint’s miracles and influence people toward faith.  “How does this apply to safety?” I asked.  The CSO replied that being in the minds and hearts of their people isn’t enough, “We need to find ways to help our people believe in safety, that not being safe is unthinkable.”  He knew others might not understand. But taking a hagiographic approach seemed like a new way to appeal to employees. He planned to break new ground with a completely different type of communication aimed at embracing the spirit of safety.

“And what about the crystal ball?” I asked.

He explained that both the objects were reminders to move away from conventional thinking and communications about safety.  His staff had the basics down.  But it was his job to go beyond. With a wink, he told me, “I’m open to anything that will help us bring our incidents to zero….I don’t want to miss any opportunity, even if it involves a little magic.”

Karen Cates has been a consultant to the roofing industry for over twenty years. She has written two children’s books including Be Safe, Rafe which was written for roofing workers to take home after safety training to read to their children and reinforce important total safety messages.

Purchase her books at NRCA's bookstore.