Using Safety to meet your Business Objectives

What are the priorities of your business? What do you measure? Do your objectives include the following?

• Service Delivery (Better Customer Satisfaction)

• Sustainable business

• Productivity (better throughput of orders)

• Increased Revenue/Profits

• Reduction in Costs (Control of Costs)

• Growth - New Business and retention of current contracts

These are likely to feature in your list of KPIs, but regardless of any others that you might add, safety will enable success. Far from the traditional view that safety is a necessary evil that adds costs and stifles business, getting safety, and this includes psychological safety, right actually brings KPI benefits. With a psychosocially (physical, psychological and emotional) safe workplace your costs will dramatically reduce. Less absenteeism, less attrition costs (recruitment, training of new staff, and lost time due to a recently departed staff member). In addition, there will be less presenteeism. The cost of an employee being off work is greater than the obvious costs of them not being at work, or using a replacement (often a temporary, contracted person who does not have the experience or skills of the absent person). It extends to the impact on the rest of the team, who have to cover (or support the inexperienced replacement), potentially meaning their own stress levels increase, their productivity decreases and they may be the next to take a sick day. Service Delivery is enhanced as engaged and valued employees interact with the clients and customers in a more positive way, and as there is a greater sense of belonging, the staff feel that their interaction with them is part of a common purpose of the team. Productivity improves as employees are keen to suggest improvements to processes, highlight where things are going wrong, and work together to find ways to meet and exceed targets. The other KPIs improve as a consequence. To create a psychosocially safe workplace, leaders need to create the right environment.

Adopting the following practices is a great start:

• Show interest in your team, make them feel Valued and Important.

• Show a unified Sense of Purpose

• Create a Sense of Belonging amongst the team, and, importantly, be part of the team.

• Trust and Respect the team members.

• Listen and Encourage opinions

These are some of the foundations of People Focused Leadership. For more information, contact InteChange or DM me direct on Linked In.