S04 HSSRME 2 2020 Kuwait HSE Forum_Layout 1 31/03/2020 17:00 Page 14
Putting people at the heart of
health and safety Safety is interpersonal relations at its core, says Joshua Franklin.
T “SH&E professionals must prioritise how they engage with workers, not simply know the right answers to every problem.”
IMAGE ABOVE: People are our most important and valuable resource.
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he list of skills that an effective Safety, Health, and Environment (SH&E) professional must develop (e.g. informal leadership, change management, negotiation, and empathy) can prove intimidating to the young professional. This is especially true when they are trained to believe that success comes solely from an expert grasp of law and regulation. It can be quite a let down the first day you find out that a worker might not care about written policies or regulations. If, for example, you notice a chemical has been improperly labelled, do you simply quote paragraph 2.4 of the chemical labelling policy? Is this going to convince a worker to do a better, safer job in the future?
In a line seemingly directed at the SH&E professional frustrated with their first year (or five) in the profession, Stephen Covey, author of the groundbreaking business book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, writes, “If I were to summarise in one sentence the single most important principle I have learned in the field of interpersonal relations, it would be this: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood.” Seek first to understand. How about you? What motivates the people you work with in your organisation? Who are they outside of work? Can you set aside your agenda to better grasp another’s perspective? Will you put down your checklist and pick up someone
else’s viewpoint on the world? People are our most important and valuable resource. If we are going to keep them safe and healthy in the workplace, then SH&E professionals must prioritise how they engage with workers, not simply know the right answers to every SH&E problem. Joshua Franklin, MBA, CSP, SMS, CIT, CPCU, ARM is a safety and professional development expert and serves as the senior director, Strategic Advancement at the Board of Certified Safety Professionals (bcsp.org). Josh is a military veteran who culminated a 21-year career as the Air Force's Safety career field manager, where he oversaw the training and development of 781 military safety professionals across the globe. ❖
ISSUE 2 2020 | www.hssreview.me
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behavioural safety
