For a safety culture to thrive and be sustainable employee engagement is a must. So how do we, as an organization, foster employee engagement? Employee engagement starts with trust. The first step is to take a hard look into a mirror. Does the reflection show a leadership team that has the trust of the workforce or is there an us and them mentality? Knowing the level of trust will be able to shed light on the next step required to improve or sustain the culture.
If your organization's paradigm is such that the level of trust is low then leadership's next move is to improve in that attribute. Start by understanding why the employees hold this belief. In Stephen R. Covey's highly acclaimed book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People habit number 5 is "seek first to understand, then to be understood" because without this base neither a person or an organization can expect to improve. Only when we understand what those challenges and barriers in our way are can develop an action plan to mitigate those obstacles. This holds true whether you are trying to improve or sustain your organization's culture.
Sustaining a strong safety culture is a challenge in of itself. Too often leadership feels once they reached a level of success and that perpetual motion will take over making their strong culture self-sustaining. History has shown that, that is not reality. What is real is that every organization is dynamic in nature. Therefore, you must continually build and maintain trust throughout the workforce, seek to understand the true status of the organization's culture, stay ahead of the inevitable decline phase by re-invigorating programs, and continue to take that hard look in the mirror.
"Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success."
Henry Ford
