Safety and Attitude Part 2 of 3: Mentoring for Positive Safety Attitudes
Fostering a culture of safety
When fostering a culture of safety mentorship and positive safety attitudes, the attitudes of experienced employees become all-important. Older workers score high with leadership abilities, detail-oriented tasks, organisation, listening, writing skills, and problem-solving. Their greatest asset is experience, or their workplace wisdom. They’ve learned how to get along with people, solve problems without drama and call for help when necessary. They know where to focus their efforts to deal with unexpected problems and so prevent costly mistakes and accidents.
These skills make them invaluable as demonstrators of good work attitudes. They model desirable behaviours and follow the rules. It’s a no-brainer to suggest that new and inexperienced workers should be mentored by those with the right attitudes and skills.
Who has positive work attitudes and positive safety attitudes?
There are many ways to identify those workers with positive attitudes, the ones who will prove valuable role models. Often they will be the ones with the ability to think first and only then to take action. These people recognise potential hazards before they have had time to cause problems, and they deal with them appropriately. Another clue to a positive attitude is that the person focuses solely on the task at hand, particularly when machinery and equipment are involved.
These behaviours help to develop work habits that lead to a high degree of efficiency and organisation.
Positive safety attitudes in the workplace are essential for an accident free work environment. They result in high efficiency and quality, while at the same time lowering the cost of accidents, and raising employee morale, business profit and goodwill.
Positive safety attitudes have other benefits for workers and their organisations, and mean that individuals are more likely to volunteer for safety committees or as a safety leader, that they will take an active role in safety meetings and training sessions, propose safety improvements without being made to do so, and set the example of a good safety attitude for others, especially new employees.
Doug Wright is a transformed survivor of a head-on near-death vehicle collision. Passionate about helping people overcome their innermost fears, especially when recovering from trauma, Doug has survived to share his courageous story … his motto is “never give up”. Away from his everyday activities, Doug invests his spare time playing his electric guitar, knocking out an eclectic mix of Eagles hits and fishing for coral trout in Airlie Beach, Northern Queensland.
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