The link between workplace safety and employee engagement is well-established. An engaged employee is someone who’s fully invested in both their work and the company’s success. This means they will put in more effort across the board. Engaged employees create fewer safety issues, while safe work environments promote engagement. Engaged employees will participate in safety and drive the safety culture in a positive direction. They take it personally when an unsafe act or injury happens because they see how it affects the goals of the company; their goals.
A disengaged workforce could lead to unsafe behavior on the work. When employees are not committed or fully vested in a safety culture, they’re not overly concerned with their performance and they are not invested in the future success of the company.
Gallup found that companies with low levels of worker enthusiasm experienced a 64% increase in safety issues when compared to those with highly engaged employees.
Therewithal the SHRM Foundation found that highly engaged employees had a five times lower chance of having a safety incident and seven times lower likelihood of missing work due to safety mishaps.
An article published on Safesite.com shares the following information: “A review published by the ASSP in Professional Safety Journal offers an illuminating look at a large manufacturing facility in the southeastern U.S.
The authors found that employees who didn’t report job-related injuries had the following characteristics in common. These engaged workers:
- Almost always follow safety procedures (95%)
- Wear proper PPE (92%)
- Support new policies and procedures (92%)
- Do or would confront employees who work or behave unsafely (89%)
- Report unsafe behaviors (79%)
Conversely, employees who reported job-related injuries demonstrated low levels of engagement — and they’d been working at the facility for more than five years.
Disengaged workers said they:
- Were not always in full support of safety policies and procedures (80.4%)
- Felt safety policies and procedures got in the way of completing their tasks (73.5%)
- Sometimes, seldom, or never reviewed the job risk analysis (JRA) documents (70%)
- Most likely or always meet with management to handle safety concerns (39%)
- Don’t always fully complete lockout/tagout procedures (34.3%)
When workers are engaged in the development, implementation and improvement of your safety management system, they will be better prepared to respond to the unexpected.
If you want to cooperate on employee engagement and workplace safety, we are ready to support.