As 2013’s National Safety Month nears its end it’s a great time to reflect on this year’s theme; "
Safety Starts With Me." The message is a great reminder to employers that creating a culture where employee safety is a priority empowers the workforce to keep safety in mind at all times. Companies work from the ground up to build a variety of employee safety programs, going from having nothing in place to having a fully structured program with tiers of success that employees can work through either individually or as a team. These types of structured safety programs encourage employees to take safety into their own hands and make it a priority in the work they do every day. Empowering employees to take safe practices seriously begins with management. Give employees the autonomy and accountability to build a culture of safety within the workforce. Take notice and reward those employees who maintain clean safety records. Using small rewards such as gift cards to popular retailers such as Crutchfield or The Cheesecake Factory shows the general workforce that management takes notice of employee safety, and appreciate employees who take it upon themselves to empower others to be safe and give them the autonomy to do so. Showing employees that management recognizes employees who contribute to common goals and better the organization as a whole will motivate and engage them in the organizational effort. Remind your workforce that employee safety starts with them- and if they make it a priority people
will take notice.
