Being effective doesn't mean being perfect. In fact, being effective in the safety world means being knowledgeable, skilled, and prepared for almost every relevant situation. Here are three surefire ways to show you're an effective safety pro.

1. Be Prepared for Anything

The best way to show you're an effective safety professional is to be prepared for anything. This means having well-stocked first-aid kits, eyewash stations, charged fire extinguishers, and everyone being trained on how to use all the safety equipment, especially the janitors. It doesn't stop there. It is your responsibility to ensure workers are trained and up-to-date on all the latest safety procedures and protocols relevant to their job and work environment. It is unrealistic to be prepared for everything, but that does not mean it isn't worth trying. It's important to always be on the lookout for potential hazards and scenarios and put measures in place to handle them.

2. Become a Subject Matter Expert

Effective safety professionals are experts in their field. Does it mean they know everything? Of course not. We cannot predict the future. But they are resourceful enough to find answers pretty easily. They know the ins and outs of OSHA regulations, environmental compliance, risk management and injury mitigation, they can spot most hazards a mile away, and they can talk about many safety topics for hours on end without getting bored. If you want to be an effective safety pro, make sure you're constantly learning and expanding your knowledge base. Immerse yourself in the industry's news. Subject matter experts are typically the go-to people when questions arise. Become that person for all things health and safety.

3. Be proactive, not reactive

Prevention is better than cure. Similarly, the best way to avoid accidents is to be proactive about them. This means identifying potential issues before they escalate then taking steps to prevent them. It also means being honest about risks and not sugar coating dangerous situations whether the root cause is direct or indirect. Not everyone is going to like this, especially if they cannot see it for themselves (or rather, refuse to see it without an actual occurrence). Facing these types of problems early shows that you're willing to take whatever steps are necessary to keep people safe. Plus, it's typically easier to handle a smaller problem earlier before it grows into something harder to deal with. In the end, the amount of paperwork you've got to fill out is completely within your control.

Are you looking to show everyone that you're an effective safety professional? Then follow these three tips and you'll be well on your way. Remember, being effective doesn't mean being perfect; being knowledgeable, skilled, and always prepared is what sets the effective safety professionals apart from the rest. 

3 Ways to show You're an effective Safety Professional

There is a yearly staff meeting. The CEO starts the speech with the importance of occupational health and safety, mental health protection and working together as one team. 

The HR Director continues, talking about diversity and inclusiveness, and then the Safety Director speaks about the improved OHS policy and risk assessment for all categories of workers. 

In an hour the meeting is over. Everybody gets back to work. And the “real life” immediately kicks in. 

“What is taking you so long?”
“We don’t have the correct spanner, sir, and the procedure says…”
“Screw the procedure. Just take the adjustable spanner, and do it quickly, we have twenty more jobs ahead for today! That stupid meeting has already cost us an hour!”

“Excuse me, ma’am, I don’t feel safe going alone to this neighbourhood. Can I order a company car?”
“Oh, come on, don’t be such a cry-baby. Nothing will happen! I don’t have time to approve your car request with my boss today”. 

“My daughter is sick, sir, can I please leave one hour early today? I will make sure the work is finished”.
“Oh, I knew I should not have hired a woman! My mistake! Take your hour if you need it so badly”. 


How do you know that those conversations do not take place in your company, while you are writing your policy statements? 
Do you invest enough in education, coaching, mentoring and support of front-line leaders?

Because you should. Front-line leaders will create a culture of safety, inclusiveness and mental health if you support them. 
Or they can undo all your speeches and policies by one phrase. 

What do you do to support your front-line leaders?


Importance of Front-Line Leaders

Alright, now let’s duplicate that for you in about 45 seconds. Ready?

Step 1: Copy the text in this google doc:

Step 2: Type in “notepad” in your program search, open the app up and paste the text.

Step 3: Save to your desktop as “safety.html”

Step 4: Double click the file called "Safety" now on your desktop (should open in your default web browser).

Awwwww yea (hopefully)! It should look something like this:

You made an html page. It’s not a “live” website since there’s no server, meaning you can only access this page if you have access to the specific file you just saved. BUT, if your company has a shared drive you could put this file in a location accessible to your employees. Once accessible to everyone, people can actually bookmark it in their browser and treat it like a real website. This means that when you want to update certain aspects of the page (update a training, inspection, etc), all you have to do is edit the html page you just made, and those changes will immediately be seen by everyone.

You also probably noticed that the orange links in each container don’t do anything. Right now those are just for show, but you can easily link those to actual documents also saved on your network.

Think of all the applications something like this could be used for. Training updates, OSHA regulation updates, employee recognition, the list goes on.

You can create amazing interfaces and workflows for virtually no money. HTML and css provide far more flexibility than traditional workflow documents such as word, excel, and outlook. There are tons of resources available which facilitate the creation of truly beautiful workflows.

You have to learn HTML and css. Lucky for you it’s not rocket science. HTML and css are what we in the web-dev world call “markup languages” meaning there’s no complex interfacing with servers and databases required. If you’re looking to learn more I would recommend starting with these two tutorials.

The digital landscape is changing! Make sure you’re on the front end of that cutting edge. Executing on some of these small projects can have a positive impact on your workforce and not cost your company any money. Give it a try!

John Shrewsberry

3 Ways to show You're an effective Safety Professional

Importance of Front-Line Leaders

Imagine if your workflow looked like this 👇