'Hiring to develop your Safety Culture' with Adel Lawson
How do you decide if someone will make a positive impact to the safety culture in your organisation?
In this episode, Adel Lawson takes us through some of the key focus areas that he uses during the hiring process. If you are on the opposite side of the table, how do you know what the employer is looking for? This podcast will also help you see from the employer’s perspective.
Adel shares his strategy for selecting the candidates that have the most chance to succeed. We talk about the role of behavioural safety, the need for cultural awareness and the importance of getting out of your comfort zone. The ‘Hiring the Right People’ podcast will be provide you actionable advice, whether your are the hirer or a prospective candidate.
Session Summary
- Demonstrate that you can strike a good balance between an authoritative approach and a behavioural change mindset.
- Understanding that sharing responsibility is key when trying to improve safety culture.
- It is important to appreciate any cultural barriers or challenges in the area of work. Applicants need to be in tune with the local working and cultural environment.
- Candidates should be able to demonstrate strong experience in training, communicating and coaching others.
- For candidates: Take yourself out of your comfort zone to learn more and progress more quickly.
'Hiring to develop your Safety Culture' | Resources
You can read the podcast here ‘Hiring people to develop your Safety Culture’ with Adel Lawson
Original Article by Adel Lawson – read Adel’s full article on Linkedin
Follow Adel Lawson – follow Adel on Linkedin to see what he’s up to and get his latest publications
Safety Culture Study IOSHÂ – interesting study carried out by IOSH into safety cutlure
4 thoughts on “‘Hiring the Right People to develop your Safety Culture’ with Adel Lawson”
Unfortunate that the thrust of this post is focused on “authorities” and behavioral approaches, indicating that safety professionals need to straddle this imaginary dichotomy. Safety folks are staff people with virtually (and correctly) NO authority over the workforce or its behavior. Better to view ourselves as consultants to management to help develop the strategies, systems and culture that drives (by management) ongoing and sustainable safety improvement. If we don’t help the organization’s change there is no chance we can change workforce behavior.
Thanks for your feedback Jim. I think Adel was saying is that in his experience safety professionals generally fall anywhere on a spectrum between highly authoritative and strongly behavioural in their approach. The authoritative approach, whilst sometimes necessary, would be more focused toward compliance with policies/procedures and can result in a ‘blame culture’. The latter, would focus more on understanding both the human and organisational factors that influence the behaviours, which can then be used as the basis for improvement. In regard to authority, certainly there are many times when safety advisor’s go beyond their level of jurisdiction, and this should be something to be very conscious of. Though I think the level of authority given to anyone within a health and safety management system is predicated by the role’s and responsibilities as outlined by the organisation, which can vary significantly.
Thanks for the prompt response Richard. I agree that many organizations define the roles for their safety personnel differently. Many see the safety staff as the doers of all things safety – including personally changing worker behaviors and enforcing the rules. Unfortunately this is neither doable or sustainable from a staff position, and safety is a staff position. Sadly many organizations want to abdicate their safety responsibility by shuffling it off to their safety folks.
No problem Jim, I appreciate your input. Yes, very many organisations use the safety role as a panacea. I agree that the level of expectation can be extreme and detached from the reality. This is part of the reason I began the Safeti project. I’d love to know your thoughts, from your own experience, as to why you feel the demands are not achievable? Thanks again, Richard.