When developing a successful health and safety culture, finding engaging ways to get messaging across is crucial. It’s no secret that safety seminars and videos can get a bit dull. So what’s the solution? Enter your Safety Champion.
What is a Safety Champion?
A Safety Champion is an in-field employee who promotes good safety practices through their own actions. They are enthusiastic and vocal members of their company’s safety committee, and positively encourage safe behaviors among their peers. By holding their company’s safety procedures in high regard, they set the tone for others to follow. The main benefit of having a Safety Champion is that they organically encourage a strong health and safety culture. They reduce friction between employees and management by “walking the walk” and acting as an accessible person people can bring their safety concerns to. Overall, they provide a more enjoyable and nuanced level of safety awareness.
A Good Safety Champion is….
When choosing a person (or people) to be your Safety Champion, there are a few important attributes to look for.
- Willing - If you have to cajole someone into a role, chances are they won’t perform well in it.
- Engaged - The Safety Champion is an engaged employee who wants to help improve the company.
- Likable - Other employees should have no problem approaching this person and following their example.
- Perceptive - This person understands that, beyond policy, there is a human element to safety. Fatigue, stress, frustration, and other factors affect workplace safety too.
- Wants to Learn - As safety standards develop and change, the Safety Champion should be willing to learn and adopt new strategies.
Support Your Safety Champion
As a vital component of a company’s safety culture, it’s important that Safety Champions receive proper support and recognition for their work. Providing safety leadership training is a great way to boost their confidence in the role and empower them to offer insights and suggestions. The Champion should have a seat on their company’s safety committee and have their concerns taken seriously. As we discussed in our last blog, recognizing their hard work is an important part of keeping any employee engaged and feeling valued. The Safety Champion can even help run their company’s safety incentive program!
Health and safety may look drastically different from industry to industry, but is never less important. Having an employee who acts as a Safety Champion is a great way to positively promote safe practices from within and keep people engaged.
By Aubrey Dion
Aubrey Dion is proud to be back working for the family business she grew up in. Over the years, she has performed a wide variety of jobs in both the office and factory, becoming a true "jack of all trades." Aubrey credits her quick learning ability to her strong theatre background, where memorization and attention to detail are vital. Working in the marketing department allows her to stay creative and work on exciting new projects for the company.
