5 Things Parenting Can Teach Us About Work Safety
Best practices rooted in care succeed at home and at work
What can rearing children possibly have to do with reducing industrial risk and making even hazardous working conditions safer? Mainly, it’s about the attitude we bring to the task. While workers are, of course, not children, cultivating a culture of care at work has a lot in common with creating a safe haven at home.
Encouraging careful behaviours
Keeping kids safe is a fundamental tenet of good parenting. It’s an instinct that usually arises organically between parents and children and gives rise to behaviours that aim naturally to mitigate risk. The current conversation around workplace safety highlights behaviour-based approaches in a way that echoes our natural instincts. Consider the ways we try to influence our children’s behaviour in the interest of safety:
1. Securing the environment
Quite a bit of thought goes into “child-proofing” a home even before the baby is born: gates are purchased for stairs, electrical outlets are plugged, floor-level cabinets are outfitted with child safety locks, etc. The process very much resembles a
HAZOP
analysis, with the adult’s intent on imagining and preventing every conceivable dangerous scenario. As the child grows, risks change and new approaches are called for. The same thing needs to happen in an industrial setting, starting with the recognition not only that new processes call for new risk assessments, but that even when processes remain the same, the people interacting with them may become perilously comfortable and risk blind in their behaviours.
2. Providing positive feedback
When our kids do the right thing, we praise them. It doesn’t matter that they are “only” fulfilling our expectations, we take pleasure in expressing pride in their accomplishments, even on a small scale. This has the added benefit of motivating them to continue to do whatever it is we have indicated is desirable and praiseworthy. That’s why it makes sense to incorporate a metaphorical “pat on the back” at work as well, especially around behaviour-based safety practices. Unfortunately, we sometimes withhold praise of this kind with the justification that it’s not necessary when a person is “only” doing their job. Worse still is the persistence of blame culture in some organisations with the effect of actually demotivating the workforce.
3. Speaking up
We do not hesitate to warn our kids when danger looms. We would not for a moment hold our tongues while a toddler scales an impromptu “ladder” of objects to reach the cookie jar or our teen whips out their phone for a selfie to document their first driving lesson. In these cases, nobody thinks, “They know what they’re doing, and I don’t want to offend…” However, in a work setting we may justify our silence in precisely this way, even in the face of gross negligence.
4. Holding “safety briefings”
In a family setting, we don’t usually refer to them this way, but it’s what happens before your child cycles off to a friend’s house or your teenager borrows the car for the first time. There’s preparation involved specifically aimed at ensuring safety. Beyond the “technical” aspects of riding a bike or driving a car, there is a discussion about what to look out for, a protocol for handling unexpected situations and an agreed schedule for check ins with the parents. This probably happens for new or non-routine tasks at work as well, but moms and dads repeat the “safety briefing” even when biking, driving and other activities become familiar because they know accidents can happen the hundredth time as easily as the first. This truth holds for the workplace as well.
5. Aiming at self-sufficiency
In parenting, the ultimate goal is self-sufficiency. We gradually hand over more and more responsibility to our children, trusting that as adults they will be able to self-monitor and make good decisions. Similarly, organisations striving for zero harm do well to incorporate self-monitoring mechanisms to gauge safety progress and adjust as circumstances change. At DEKRA we help our partners along the
Cultural Maturity Ladder
, which includes steps that empower organisations to progress independently toward safer outcomes.
The source of safety is care
Parenting is a convenient and relatable model, but any caring relationship includes concern for others’ safety. While the behaviours we’ve outlined are often second nature in a familial setting or among friends, allowing them to inform our professional relationships and tapping into the power of
care in organisational culture
can be transformative in improving safety levels in our workplaces.
