The Occupational Safety Leadership Podcast

Episode 158 - David Ward - 10 Fundamental Company Values from his book The Faces of Safety

On today’s episode, Dr. Ayers has repeat guest David Ward to cover his 10 fundamental company values from his book ”The Faces of Safety”. David Ward does a very good job of outlining values that companies should be doing (not striving for) in safety. This is a multi-part series.

Duration:: 25m
Broadcast on:: 01 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

On today's episode, Dr. Ayers has repeat guest David Ward to cover his 10 fundamental company values from his book "The Faces of Safety". David Ward does a very good job of outlining values that companies should be doing (not striving for) in safety. This is a multi-part series.

Welcome to the Occupational Safety Leadership Podcast. This is episode number 158 with repeat guest, David Ward. So, Dave wrote a really good book called The Faces of Safety. So, in this episode, I'm going to do everything I can to not talk. I really want Dave just to sit down and he had a really good list of 10 different values that he thought that that companies should really have out there. I thought it was really awesome and I'd like to thank Dave for coming back, of course, too. And if he could just go through these 10 different values, I'm pretty sure that we're not going to be done in half an hour. So, look for a part two and a part three. But I think it's really important to kind of get this out there because these are things that I wish I heard as a very young safety professional, as opposed to stumbling my way through life. And at some point, I kind of figured out, ah, these are important and these are not important. And so, Dave, if you could take a couple seconds, it's going to be found on page 94 of your book and just kind of help folks to go through your 10 values that companies should have when it comes to safety. Sounds good, sounds really good. Well, first of all, I would like to say thank you again for having me on. And I think this is a critical component of the book where we talk about value and safety. It's critical because it plays a role in every department of your business. And safety shouldn't be changed, altered, or modified because of the convenience, production, or any other circumstances. And that is the difference in making safety a priority or a core value of your company. So from this point on the value, I was saying in the book, one should be employee safety. Are you actually committed to investing and providing in your employee safety? Would it be resources of funding, staffing, walking around as a CEO, a CFO, or a COO with your safety manager or safety professional to give that understanding that employee safety is not only a commitment, but a value of your company. And then we talk a little bit about accountability. In today's world, when we talk about accountability, you have to be able to hold people accountable for their actions. And there are certain things, especially confined space, lockout, tag out, respiratory protection. Those are critical components because if you turn around and you don't hold those people accountable, your employees accountable for doing the right thing in those three areas, somebody can get severely injured. But before you can hold somebody truly accountable, you have to set the expectations. And setting expectations, as I've taught many classes so far, OSHA 10 and 30 hour classes, when you set expectations, expectations are different for every employee because not every employee is capable of doing the same thing or the same type of job. So therefore, when you set these expectations, you should sit down with each one of your employees and say, hey, listen, I've got a list, one through five. This is my expectations of you. Do you think you can manage these five? Yes or no? And then if they can or they can't, then you discuss that and you say, okay, let's do one, two and three and we'll forgo four and five. Now that's just for day. Well, Tom, on the other hand, can probably do all the expectations, one through five. Does that make Dave a better employer or worse employee? No, it's just that people have different capabilities. But if you never set those expectations, how can you hold anyone accountable? It's a great question. How can you hold people accountable if they don't know the safety policies? So as department heads, as safety managers, as supervisors and company executives, getting your people in touch with the safety programs is extremely important because if it came down to where somebody got hurt, somebody turns around and say, hey, listen, they never train me on the safety policies, lockout, tag out, machine guarding, respiratory protection, confined space, PPE. So how can you hold them accountable? So it's extremely important, especially when people come into your facility and I'm talking about new employee training. Those are the times that we need to give people a great understanding of how critical and how important they are to our company, that they're not just another number. They're not just another warm body that we want to put out on the floor. We want to take the time to turn around and appropriately train these people and let them understand that they are a true value to our company and to our success. So that's when you look at leadership. Well, where does leadership begin? It doesn't begin in the supervisory part, the executive part, the CEO part. You know, some people during my training programs, I ask that same question. Do you know management's commitment to safety? And believe it or not, there's a lot of people that say, I don't. I don't know what commitment management has to safety, especially if you turn around and you have a company that works three shifts, 24 hours a day, and you only have one safety person. What does that say? What does that say not only about your company, but what does that say to your employees on the second and third shifts? So when we talk about leadership, we talk about expectations, and then we talk about accountability, those are some really strong points right there. Are we committed? Is your management committed? Are your safety people able to do the right things or are their hands tight because we can't hold anybody accountable, especially in today's society? And we can barely get people to come to work. So if you turn around and somebody does something and you write it down, say you write Dave down three times for not wearing the appropriate safety equipment, or Dave took a shortcut and didn't do something on lockout tag out. But Dave's a great employee. Should we let him go? Can we let him go? Or do we say, I've got to turn the eye here because I can't find another day. But what does that say about management's commitment to safety, right? So it gives you some things there to think about. And then when we talk about we go back to employee safety, you know, when we look at the leadership, it doesn't cost anything for leadership to take the time to walk around with your safety professional or even that department and go through and ask the employees, what can we do to make your area safe, more efficient, more effective? But do we actually turn around and ask those questions? Do we take the time to truly understand our employees and the importance of safety? Just because we say, hey, they were trained. They were trained by another employee. But if you never observed them and watched them do their job and everyone's dying to tell you, hey, this is what I do. This is my job. I'm proud of what I do. But again, by executives coming down and taking the time to do that, it would speak volumes. But how many of our executives do that, Dave? I've seen that every so, every so often, but a lot of times it's a very scheduled event. So as it's a scheduled event, people do what they can to clean up and all that stuff. So it's not always a organic walkthrough and let's talk to folks. Somebody's going to walk through, it needs to look nice, and all the supervisors will be with the CEO, so it's not quite that same thing. There's going to be that barrier there. Right. But when you, you know, if you look at these and you say, you know, they're their values, like employee safety, accountability, and we talk about expectations, you know, it takes time. Right? And in today's world, you know, as I, again, as I teach these classes, you know, supervisors are wearing how many hats, two, three, four different hats. It's do more with less. So how can they actually set these expectations? How can they take the time to truly, truly sit down with each one of their employees specifically when you're turning around in some supervisors, they manage 30 or 40 people. Now just that alone speaks volumes as to how much emphasis you're really putting on safety because can one person actually manage effectively manage 30 or 40 people? No. No. No. Not only impossible, right? But if we continue to put, put that on the shoulders of all our supervisors. Now they're running to meetings, they're looking at quality, they're looking at production because production is, is the key here, right? So look at production, you're saying, hmm, Dave's doing something wrong, but I walked right by because I got to go to a meeting or we have a problem with something in production. So that emphasis on safety then turns around and becomes more important on the production side because we got to get stuff out that door. But are we getting stuff out the door at the cost of the value of safety, at the cost of ensuring that our employees, excuse me, that our employees are protected in the appropriate manner? It's the training, hands-on training, when a new employee comes to your department and again, you set those expectations. But are we also taking the time to appropriately train them on the pieces of equipment that they're going to be operating? Or do we need that body out there as quick as possible so we can continue with our production schedule? We can continue to operate in a highly effective manner, but at what cost to get. If you send that out, if you send that employee out working on the floor without appropriately training them, what are you saying as a supervisor? Is safety truly a core value or is safety just a priority? Exactly, basically saying get out and work and then we'll talk about safety when times are slow or as you're going about your day in this first week or two. It's not the same as doing safety first, which I always try to do. I haven't always been successful, but I have found that if you do it first thing as soon as somebody walks inside that door, that really helps out as opposed to maybe on the first day, but you don't see them until three o'clock because everyone's real tired the first day. They've been drinking through a fire hose, walking around, trying to understand things. But yes, you're definitely right, Dave. Yes, and you're right about drinking through a fire hose. We set people the new employees. What do we do for them? We turn around. We set them in a room. We let them watch some videos. We have 100 sheets of paper that they have to sign and our objective is what? To get them out on the floor or is our objective to turn around and show them that they are of value to our company. And then that's when you sit down and you really determine what's important to your company. And I strongly suggest to companies now that based on the fact that employees are looking not only for the money, but employees are looking for people, companies, who actually care about them. Right? Oh, yeah. When you take it on. And I think in today's world also, we've had a culture shift and more people are into the, I have to have that feeling of belonging, you know, I want to be a valued member and all that stuff then. And not that that wasn't there in the past. It just was not stressed as much as in today's world. Right. And when you turn around again, you know, it's, it's important. If you ask employees today, what's truly important, it's their well-being. That's how they're treated. Employees just want to be listened to. They want to be heard. But if we're stretching ourselves and our supervisors are running to meetings, are looking at production issues or quality issues or whatever other issues that their boss may have them doing, how can you actually feel valued? Yes. Yes. Exactly. As a supervisor, you know, when we talk about again, when we go back and we set those expectations, you know, you have to take the time to truly understand your employees. You have to take the time to get to know them on a basis to where you understand what makes them tick, what motivates them, how to get them engaged in safety and within your life. In your own department, how can we make them more effective in regards to safety. And again, that's that leadership by supervision, you know, supervisors are tremendously important. But if our supervisors are so stretched out, you know, because they're doing multiple jobs, then you're kind of telling the employee, hey, I really don't value you. I don't have time to sit and talk with you. And that's where we tend to have people get hurt. But then on the other hand, if somebody does get hurt, who are they going to report it to? Yeah. Or a supervisor. Yeah. Or are they afraid to report it? You know, if the supervisors never around, you know, if I get hurt, hey, I don't want to, you know, put a bad light on the company. I'll just go home and take care of myself. But again, that's setting those expectations that's holding people accountable and letting people know that, hey, listen, you are a value component of this place, right? Mm hmm. And it all goes back to that commitment. You know, how important or, you know, we put up all these signs, safety first. But our is safety truly first. If you were to ask the CEO of your company is safety a core value or priority, what do you think they would say? I think at my current, my current places, yes. But when I was a young, young man and didn't know what to look for, they would probably all say no. And they would stumble upon it eventually, but it would be much, much more about profits and shareholders and all that. And eventually they, we get around to and to make sure people are safe, you know, and all that stuff. Yeah. But, you know, it truly goes back to, you know, the point where you say core values and a lot of people put their values up on boards. And that's the first thing when you walk into one into a facility. But do you ever really see safety as listed as a core value? I have only seen it when people asked me for my input. And I was going to be part of that, of that. And I was going to be part of that process. There were times where I asked to put it up there. And it was, well, when we do the next rev, you know, all that, that kind of stuff then. So I think that if the safety person is part of the process, they have a much, much greater voice. But a lot of times we're not part of the process. All that stuff is done by a paid consultant someplace. And sometimes they eat, they, they even do studies on buzz buzz words and, you know, all that, that kind of stuff too. Yeah. When you talk about, you know, again, when we talk about employee safety and you look at how companies turn around and they divvy up that responsibility by giving it to the HR person or to the plant manager or to some other, to some other member of the company, right? Mm hmm. Instead of hiring a true safety professional, they're, they're given these. And when you give it to HR, I'm not slamming HR in any way, shape or form. They have a tremendous job, but most of their responsibility is done where in the office and where is safety held at right out there in the field on that factory floor, wherever they were, wherever the job is. Exactly. Exactly. And then when you look at, you know, again, when we speak volumes about leadership, I think it's probably the best part of maybe we're not taking the time to educate our leadership on the true value of safety and how many, how many CEOs, CFOs or COOs really understand what safety does. Right. I would bet most don't really understand. I would bet that they do a great job of looking at a PowerPoint and asking a couple of questions, but actually understanding is a totally different thing as opposed to being given some data, you know. True. And I think one of those values again, if you have a safety professional that's actually working for your company, I think maybe we should take the time as a safety professional to educate our executive staff on really the value of safety. I think by educating our, our executive staff in that manner, they'll understand how important it is to have employee safety, to really invest in the employees, because when you invest in the safety of your employees, you're actually investing in your own company. You're investing in that bottom line, because the more you protect your employees, the more value they fill, the more value, then what do you think it's going to, they're going to work harder, right? They're going to give more to the company. When you ask them, Hey, can you work overtime? What do you think their response will be? If it's, if it's a, if it's a good environment, it's going to be, yes, if it's a poor environment regardless of extra pay, probably no. True. Very true. And, you know, there's a lot of things that go along with that from, you know, I've been now through several companies here recently, and I'm walking with the safety professional through the facility, and there's people that don't even talk to the safety professional. So my question is, wow, what kind of relationship is safety building with the employees? Are you really taking the time, even as a safety professional, to listen to the employees? What are their needs? What are their concerns? And then on the other hand, once you get that message, once you get that information, how was it disseminated to the executive staff, or to their own supervisors? Or is it? Right. Well, there, I have run into a couple of safety professionals that seem to be, and I hate to use the word scared, but almost like they're engaged enough, because they're trying to walk that, walk that line between corporate says, I got to do this, but if I start asking people about things to do, now I have even more work out there. So I have found out a couple of folks are really struggling with just almost trying to find that courage to say it's much, much more important to take care of the local folks, you know, and I get it, you corporate guys are paying the bills and the grand scheme of things, but this is where the actual work is happening on the factory floor. Yeah, and if you, and if people aren't walking or taking the time, if the supervisors aren't taking the time, if the executives aren't taking the time, it does send a clear message to people, hey, listen, you know, it is all about production, it does all about quality, and maybe I'm not as important as I thought I was, you know, I was just recently at a company where they said, listen, I can only go speak, I can only go so far because if it cost any money, we can't do it. Oh, man. And it's a, it's a sad commentary when you get people like that, because what you're doing is really you're killing your safety professional, because they're there to protect management, they're there to protect the company, they're there to make sure the liability for the company isn't going to be hindered in any way, shape or form. But how many executives really listen to that? Right, right, right, right, hey, Dave, we are just about at the end of our time. So if you could do just a little bit of a wrap up, let folks, let folks know where to sit down, connect and find you out there. This was a great talk. Your book was great. And I'm pretty sure that we didn't even get to half of these values out there. So I'd like to sit down and catch it. We'll do part two or even, even a part three, but I think this is really important for folks to hear. Yes. And if you need to give me a call, you can call me at two, one, nine, six, six, nine, nine, zero, four, three, or you can go to DavidAward.com or you could go to DavidAwardsenior.com. You can find out more. You can actually send me an email if you have any questions, I'd love to be a valuable resource for you. So please don't hesitate to reach out and give me a shout. Perfect, Dave. Thank you so much. And I'd like to thank everybody for joining me today, episode number 158 is complete with David Ward. If you get a chance, get out and get his book, The Faces of Safety. Thank you so much, Dave. I appreciate your time today. You're more than welcome and have a great afternoon. Thank you, Dave.