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Soft Skills

Leverage These 7 Soft Skills for Stronger Safety Outcomes

Interest in safety soft skills took off like a rocket this year. From podcasts about enhancing safety leadership to presentations at upcoming conferences like the SafeStart Forum, soft skills are increasingly becoming recognized as key leverage points for health and safety managers to improve safety outcomes without having to make dramatic changes to their safety…

4 Ways to Use Consistency to Boost Safety Outcomes

Imagine waking up one morning to find that someone has moved things around in your kitchen. The mugs are in a different cabinet than usual, and it takes you an extra minute to find them and make your morning coffee. The next morning, things are even more different—the bowls are in the back of the…

How to Take the First Steps to Human Factors Management

54% of slips, trips and falls are the result of human factors. According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, various human factors are the top three causes of fatal car crashes. And fatigue alone—just one of many human factors in the workplace—is regularly cited as one of the biggest safety concerns in most workplaces,…

How to Maximize Two Underrated Safety Skills: Relatability and Storytelling

Relatability and storytelling may not seem like obviously necessary safety skills. It may not even be clear that the two are related to one another. But make no mistake, relatability and storytelling go hand in hand with positive safety outcomes. And if you’re a safety pro who’s looking to better engage workers then you need…

How in Touch Are You With Your Safety Culture?

Safety culture is an incredibly challenging concept to pin down. Each organization has a unique safety culture because each one is formed by every single policy, procedure, and employee within their facility. In a recent article about safety culture in Occupational Health and Safety magazine, safety writer Ray Prest explains that one of the only…

The Safety Case for Taking the Temperature and Reading the Room

Flip through any recent issue of a safety magazine and you’re likely to come across an article or two that talks about safety culture. It’s a constant concern for anyone in safety management. As Gary Higbee, winner of the Distinguished Service to Safety Award used to say, the entire concept of safety culture boils down…

Why Delegation and Empowerment Matter in Safety

No one can go it alone in safety. Even if you work in a full-time EHS role at a very small company, it’s still impossible for you to look over everyone’s shoulder every second of the day. At some point, you need to get some help from others. And the best way to do that…

Why Positivity Is the Key to Strengthening Safety Culture

Positivity gets relatively little traction in the safety world. Many EHS folks find the concept of positivity a little too vague and airy. But it’s quite the opposite—and your ability to cultivate positive interactions can have a massive influence on your safety program. Research by Barbara L. Fredrickson, conducted at the University of Michigan Institute…

Four Best Resources to Get Better Safety Performances From Supervisors

Supervisors and other frontline leaders are one of the biggest determinants of the overall success of your workplace safety program. After all, they have a key role in executing the high-level direction set by management. Supervisors are also where the organization’s systems meet individual employees. This means that they are ideally positioned to monitor individual…

4 Ways Frontline Supervisors Influence Workplace Safety

Frontline supervisors are a notable feature on any sizeable worksite. And they have an equally notable impact on the safety of the teams they lead. Their abilities to recognize hazards, communicate various safety issues and manage human factors all have a direct link to safety outcomes. So does their ability to bring out the best…

How Safety Professionals Can Maximize the Value of Empathy

No one starts working in safety unless they care about keeping people safe. And no one stays working in safety unless they really care about preventing injuries. The job is too much work and too much of a grind unless you truly care about people. It’s obvious to you that you care. It’s probably obvious…

How to Hone Your Soft Skills for Hard Workplace Problems

Safety professionals can be pretty hard-nosed about reaching compliance requirements (and with good reason). But sometimes it requires some soft skills to get across the line. According to a new guide called 7 Essential Soft Skills for Hard Workplace Safety Problems, soft skills (also known as interpersonal skills or social leadership skills) can make a…