Safety Leadership: Why Don’t Employees Follow the Rules?

Abridged: Safety + Health

Getting employees to follow the rules—even those that keep them safe—is more difficult than simply having the desire to avoid injuries. Culture, leadership, organizational systems and other factors make up a complex system that interacts with, influences, and guides workplace behavior. Aligning these factors is the key to developing the behavior reliability needed to ensure that the systems and rules already in place are used as intended. It’s essential to create an adaptable workforce that can recognize risk and respond appropriately when it changes. After all, rules cannot account for every variable in a dynamic work environment. To achieve this level of performance, leaders need to build a culture of commitment—a workplace that supports and encourages engagement with the organization’s values and creates an environment in which discretionary effort flourishes.

To start building a culture of commitment, leaders can ask themselves four questions... read the full article here