We’ve written about the need for employee engagement on safety in several blog posts, most recently in this one. But sustaining employee engagement can be tricky: how do you keep them interested and active in supporting your safety goals after the initial push to educate and empower?
One key way to do this is aligning organizational goals with employee-level goals. By creating clear goals for both the management and employee levels—then communicating the interdependence of them—you make employee engagement more sustainable.
We came across this great post on cross-level alignment from Scontrino & Powell, which explains this approach and shares this very useful diagram:
Graham, J. (2004). Developing a performance-based culture. Journal for Quality and Participation, 27, 4-8.
The key takeaway is that it’s not enough to champion the organization’s goals. These goals need to be deconstructed and translated into a framework of KPIs and actions for employees. Then you can show employees how supporting safety benefits them professionally.
When you align organizational and employee interests, you create an environment where being safety conscious is not just a worry for employees. Instead, it’s a professional asset and something to improve for their benefit.
- Read: 5 Characteristics of a World Class Safety Management System
- Download: Creating the Business Case for Safety Ebook
- Learn more about Safety Benchmarking & Measurement Solutions