Coaching Below Average Safety Performers
Many managers look forward to managing the performance of the good to excellent performers within the workplace. Providing praise and recognition to an employee is a positive experience for both the employee as well as the employer. But what if you’re dealing with a below average safety performer? These conversations can be difficult as it is your job to guide your staff through a negative situation in the most positive manner possible. It can no doubt be a difficult task to plan for safety performance improvement of poorly performing staff members. Coaching poor safety performers involves working collaboratively with employees to plan for individual safety performance improvement so staff contributes to the overall safety objectives and goals of the department, facility and organization they belong to.
Step 2 of ‘Performance Management for Safety’ states that managers should identify safety performance problems of their employees, diagnose the cause of problems, and reach agreement with employees on steps to be taken to solve these problems.
For his book Coaching for Improved Work Performance (2000),Ferdinand F. Fournies surveyed 25,000 supervisors and managers about why they think employees do not do what they are supposed to do. He found sixteen reasons:
They do not know what they are supposed to do. / There is no positive consequence to them for doing it.They do not know how to do it. / There is a negative consequence to them for doing it.
They do not know why they should do it. / There is a positive consequence to them for not doing it.
They think they are doing it (lack of feedback). / There is no negative consequence to them for not doing it.
There are obstacles beyond their control. / Personal limits (incapacity).
They think it will not work. / Personal problems.
They think their way is better. / Fear (they anticipate future negative consequences).
They think something is more important (priorities). / No one could do it.
When it comes to safety, organizations, facility administrators and frontline supervisors cannot afford for employees to not be doing what they’re supposed to be doing. Employee compliance with safety policy and procedure is vital for the wellbeing of the workplace, the employees and the costs of the organization. Your invested efforts coaching staff to improved safety performance can eliminate the above 16 reasons for safety non-compliance. Fournies points out that most of the 16 listed reasons for non-compliance result from a lack of direction and lack of feedback from the manager. This leads him to his “coaching analysis” that helps a manager deal with each of the reasons why an employee does not do what he is supposed to do. Below is the decision process that Fournies uses to help walk managers through employee coaching.
Fournies’ “Coaching Analysis”
Fournies believes that it is important to go through every step of the process in order to make the right decision on how to handle a performance issue. If the manager does not have enough information to complete all of the steps it is important to gather the information she/he needs either from someone else who knows about the situation or from the employee. However, while the manager is collecting this information she/he should not discipline the employee. Until all of the steps have been completed the manager may believe the performance or lack of performance is due to one reason, when the investigation may find another reason.
Coaching Analysis Explanation
Step / ExplanationIdentify behavior discrepancy / It is important to know what the employee is specifically doing wrong not just a general idea. An example: one of the issues is that a staff member refuses to follow safe work policy requiring him/her to wear a specific piece of personal protective equipment (PPE) during work. Usually the manager cannot give an exact number of times the worker is not wearing the PPE. Until the manager finds this out he/she cannot give the employee a specific example of the situation. By doing a work sample during a safety walkabout, however, the manager can determine how often all of his/her employees are not wearing PPE during tasks and actually find for certain that the employee in question is in fact negligent in following policy or procedure more often than others. Fournies suggests walking through the work area several times a day, every hour if possible, and recording on a sheet of paper how many times the employee does not wear appropriate, policy-specified PPE as well as, how many times each other employee does not comply with the same policy/procedure. At the end of the sampling period the manager will have concrete information about the specific behavior. If the specific behavior is not clearly defined it can cause problems when talking to the employee in the future.
Is it worth your time and effort? / Fournies asks the important question of “Is it worth your time?” Since management’s time is usually very limited it is important for the manager to focus on the things that are actually a problem for the company. When it comes to safety issues or non-compliance, it is definitely worth your time. If you’re dealing with employees who are late to work, that’s altogether another performance issue that may cause you to consider a question of this nature. The facility administrator/manager and supervisors must make decisions about every problem behavior that occurs and if it is not detrimental to the company then it may be best just to let it go. Safety issues, however, if let go increase risk for injury each time the at-risk behaviour occurs and that equates to potential financial losses. Management must buy-in to the notion that safety issues are always worth their time.
Do they know performance is unsatisfactory? / Fournies asks if the employee knows the performance is unsatisfactory? If the answer is no then the manager should let the employee know. They can do this by giving neutral feedback, such as “How would you describe good safety performance?” From these types of questions the manager can determine if the employee actually knows that what he is doing is unsafe and unacceptable. It is important to look at the feedback that you give to employees and when you give it to them. If you wait until the end of the day to correct unsafe work it will not be as effective as correcting it on the spot. Immediate feedback is best when it comes to improving safety performance.
Do they know what they're supposed to do? / This question can be broken into four parts because the employee may not know what specifically they are supposed to do to conduct safe work, when to start it, when to finish it, or “what finished is supposed to look like” if conducted safely. The last part is the most common. An employee may finish the morning routine with a resident and think that it is exactly what the manager is looking for because they managed to get the resident to the dining room in a short amount of time, but the manager wanted the routine to include additional safety precautions. If the manager never tells the employee what is missing as well as the necessity for the manager then the employee will never know what a safe morning routine is supposed to look like. In this case it is important for the manager to address the issue and let the employee know exactly what safety measures he/she is looking for in the performance. By doing so it may very well resolve the problem performance.
Do they know how to do it? / Next, does the employee know how to do what the manager is asking him to do? In this section Fournies brings up many reasons why training can often fail an employee. His research has shown that most of the people who train employees in corporations were never taught how to teach. If the safety trainer does not effectively teach to different learning styles, then one may assume that not all of the employees will be able to learn what they need to know in order to safely perform their jobs. In this same way, a manager may choose the best employee to train a new employee on safely conducting tasks, but how does the manager know that the employee knows how to train another? Along with this, organizations usually do not test to see if the training was effective. They simply send the employees to the training and assume that they have learned the safe techniques expected in the workplace. It is important to know that the trainer knows how to train employees properly, as well as, testing to make sure that employees are actually learning something. If the company or manager does not do this they cannot be sure that the employee has been properly trained. Also, the poor safety performance may be caused by a lack of practice rather than the training itself. In this case it would be easy for a manager to allow the employee to practice the safe-work skill more often so that his/her performance will improve.
Do they know why they should do it? / It is important for an employee to know why he/she should be doing a particular task. If the employee cannot determine the value of the work being done then he may think that it is worthless for him to do it. A manager should be able to tell the employee why safe work is valuable to the company. He/she can do this by showing how it affects others, the bottom line, or other work that is involved. If a manager cannot tell an employee why they should be doing something safely then according to Fournies, perhaps it is not that important to the company and is not necessary to do. Always explain why safety is so important to the company from legal, moral and financial points of view.
Are there obstacles beyond their control? / Some obstacles in the workplace are not under the employee’s control and simply need to be removed in order for an employee to conduct work safely. If an employee is waiting for a co-worker from a different department to conduct work (maintenance for example), and it is unsafe to enter a space until the initial work is completed to remove a hazard, concessions need to be made in order to ensure that all work is completed safely. Lack of time is often an obstacle in continuing care facilities causing staff to rush and take shortcuts. In this case as in all cases, safety needs to be a priority rather than the speed of work completion. By identifying the obstacles that prevent employees from safely performing and trying to remove them the manager can easily solve a safety performance issue of this nature.
Do they think your way will not work?
Do they think their way is better? / If an employee thinks that the manager’s way of doing something will not work, the employee may be reluctant to try it. You know very well that the manager’s way of conducting work is the safe way, yet at times the staff is opposed to trying new methods. In this case Fournies tells the manager to explain to the employee why his way will result in safe work. If the manager has done this procedure in other areas and it has worked, he should give detailed information to the employee about how and why it worked. If the employee is still reluctant the manager should tell them to try it and see what happens. Hopefully, after doing it the manager’s way, the safe way, the employee will understand why management wanted the employee to use the method. Along with this, if an employee thinks that his way is better, the manager needs to discuss this with the employee. The manager may ask “Does anyone think they have a better, safer way?” If an employee says yes then the manager should take the time hear what the employee has to say. The employee’s way may be better leading to a safety suggestion that could benefit the entire organization. If it is not then the manager should explain why it is not a better way. By doing this before work begins a manager can be more preventative by resolving the problem before mistakes are made leading to higher risk for incidents.
Do they think something else is more important? / Priorities can often be hard for an employee to manage, including safety priorities. Employees are often asked to do many things at once and often by many people. If this is the case the employee may be working on something that he/she thinks is a priority when in reality something else is more important. If safety is viewed as a priority, then safe work procedures should be reviewed prior to conducting work, informal hazard assessments conducted, PPE used, any required safety checks conducted prior to engaging in work. Organizations dictate the level of priority safety receives and facility administrators and supervisors are the staff members responsible for ensuring that safety is kept a top priority during work. If an employee does not see the manager’s way of prioritizing safety then it is important for the manager to explain it to the employee. Once the employee knows what is most important to you and the organization his/her performance should change.
Are there positive consequences to them for performing appropriately? / “Are there positive consequences to the employee for performing appropriately” or safely? If an employee does not get recognition for doing a safe job or is not internally motivated to conduct safe work then the employee may not feel the need to do continually avoid at-risk behaviours. In order to correct this, a manager or supervisor needs to develop ways to provide positive feedback to the employee. He/she can do this by creating safety performance goals and contests. By creating safety performance goals the manager has an opportunity to give positive feedback when every goal is met. It is important to keep these goals short term so that the employees are rewarded frequently. It is also important not to continually reward the same person for every safety contest that is held. The rewards should be small and something that the employees will appreciate.
Are there negative consequences to them for performing appropriately? / The opposite of positive feedback is negative feedback. If the employee is receiving negative feedback for performing safely then the employee will eventually stop performing safely. An example may be an employee who safely and properly does the work that everyone dislikes, the tendency is to give that employee all the work that others hate. At this point the employee is doing all the hated work and continues to have more work to do. Why? Because he/she worked safely and did the job properly. Punishing staff for safe work will not encourage future safe work. The employee will see this as an unfair consequence and will likely stop doing the hated work so well. It is important for a manager to recognize this and put an end to it by evenly distributing the dreadful work among all of the employees. If the negative consequence cannot be removed then adding positive consequences to the situation may balance the negative consequences.
Do they anticipate future negative consequences for performing appropriately? / Fear can often make an employee anticipate a future negative consequence. In the continuing care industry fear is one of the top reasons employees do not report incidents, hazardous work or make safety suggestions to their superiors. It is important for managers to address this daily by remaining approachable and encouraging employees’ safety partnerships with management. Whether based on reality or staff perception, you must always work towards removing their fear and building safety relationships of trust. Staff’s fear of negative consequences can prevent them from participating fully in a safety program.
Are there positive consequences to them for performing inappropriately?
Are they performing inappropriately without receiving negative consequences? / An example of a positive consequence following unsafe performance is if an employee rushes to complete a task in a timely manner by skipping necessary safe-work steps and receives a praise from his/her manager/supervisor for getting the job done so efficiently. Staff will learn that to please management, they can skip those safe work behaviours as they managed to come out of the situation without an incident. In order to resolve this, a manager must stop the positive consequences resulting from unsafe work. Positive consequences for unsafe work exist in the workplace without management awareness or involvement (see Chapter 6: Positive Reinforcement to Change Behaviour). The process of safe work must be viewed as most important rather than outcomes. Along with this, if an employee is not receiving negative consequences or correction for unsafe work or at-risk behaviour, he is learning to do just what is necessary in order to get the job done. If this is the case, the manager should focus on making the employee aware that their work was conducted in an unsafe manner and coach them to work safely.
Are personal problems interfering? / If personal problems are causing poor safety performance for an employee at work it is helpful to accommodate the employee in their time of need. A manager can do this by giving them time off, and allowing them to arrive late to work, or leave early to take care of personal matters. However, if the problem is affecting the employee’s safe-work performance then it is important to address the issue with the employee by explaining that there are two problems involved: the personal problem and a work problem. The manager should explain to the employee that he/she understands the situation and is willing to accommodate him/her anyway he/she can but work still needs to be completed in a safe manner.
Could they do it if they choose to do it? / Finally, Fournies asks “Could the employee do it if he or she chose to do it?” Could he or she conduct work safely if a conscious effort was made to do so? This section deals with the employee’s capacity to perform the job safely. He states that “people’s capacity is a function of the innate characteristics they were born with and how they may have been damaged along the way.” Ensure upon hiring and after training that employees are capable of conducting safe work. If an employee is capable of performing the job safely but he will not do it even after a discussion, then the manager may have no choice but to resort to a progressive disciplinary policy. If, however, the employee chooses to work safely, but cannot produce safe work, they are incapable of performing as the job requires and you must follow your organization’s procedure for dealing with employees of this nature.
Use the coaching discussion to change their behavior choices
Preparing For The Coaching Discussion