What is Safety Complacency?

Complacency is a state of mind where a worker is disconnected from the hazards and risks, they can be exposed around them. Often times, complacency happens over time, where workers take the conditions or the context around them for granted. For example, consider a worker who is so caught up in a regular routine each day that he/she doesn’t notice conditions around them that are out of the norm. These signs could be something that’s wrong with his/her equipment, or worse yet, it could be a more immediate threat that could put his/her in harm’s way. If someone is “going through the motions,” cutting corners on the right way to do things or almost in a “trance on the job, you can see how they are potentially putting his/her life, and others’ lives, at risk. All in all, complacency can be one of the most concerning mindsets that can be highly associated as a contributing factor to injuries and incidents on the job. So how can you move towards a culture where complacency isn’t a threat to workers?

Here are 5 key steps to curb safety complacency:

1. Bring your company’s values to life.

If company values are shared, expanded upon, and even reinforced, they get to be truly understood and/or embraced by personnel at all levels. This is one of the underlying issues that can contribute to a a strong culture where people do not take things for granted and behave in ways that are true to company standards. To get there, always consider empowering personnel to share examples of when they successfully brought values to life. Sponsor a positive environment of open communication where they feel ok to explain the decision-making and mindsets that went into the positive decisions they made. On the other hand, if mistakes are made in the company that went against company values, you they also feel safe to share those so that others can learn from those, too. It’s easy for leaders to assume that workers know how to translate strongly held values into appropriate, intentional behaviors. But take a step back and realize that’s not always the case for workers, especially when it comes to values involving safety, explains Mercer.

2. Mix up your routines.

One of the key contributing factors to complacency is too much routine or predictability. Is so natural for people can easily go into “autopilot” once something becomes a routine. We can combat that by mixing up how you communicate with workers, how you educate them, and even their work schedules, environments, and tasks—as much as the job permits. The same is true for safety management, too. Classical example is your drive to work in the morning, unless you saw a significant event, you do not remember much about how you got to work, right? “When was the last time supervisors/managers actually took the time to review documentation filled by personnel?”. “Did personnel miss the same checks, marks, and verbiage in the forms or reports?” If so, perhaps you are probably enabling them to a culture of complacency. Another example: be sure you, as a manager, are mixing up how you deliver feedback and how you help others learn on the job. Have you taken the time to document and discuss issues noted with the safety team as well as the individual employee and supervisor?” Always try to vary your process to give feedback and input, so personnel do not perceive it as “just another recommendation”.

3. Increase workers’ self-awareness.

We can agree that self-awareness involves the ability to recognize and “read” your surrounding environment. It also involves having a heightened sense of awareness where you can recognize the environment around you, but you are also aware of how you’re reacting and responding to that environment. Having a high level of self-awareness goes a long way in combating complacency because workers can “catch” when something is off, or when they notice they don’t have the right mindset. Take the time to help workers grow their ability to become more self-aware. Self-awareness is a muscle that can grow and develop, after all. In general, the more proficient they can be in this area, the more skill they will have at recognizing signs of complacency and then taking action to fight it.

4. Incorporate changes that allow workers to stay focused.

In combination to all these elements, leaders must ensure the system and structure around personnel is supporting them to be present and mindful each day. Revisit the nature of their work and see where opportunities exist to change routines and to add meaningful variety. Perhaps, you can have workers observe, shadow, and learn from others on the job. This is one way to avoid routines, to teach & cross-train employees, and it helps to combat complacency since there is a bit of added accountability that can drive a renewed sense of focus. Another powerful tool to keep personnel focused is encouraging engagement through rewards and reinforcement. Regardless of what some executives may believe, I’ve always felt very strong about the fact that at every level of an organization, employees should be recognized. So please be sure to acknowledge personnel’s hard work and dedication”. When you think about it, we can all agree that an employee at any level in the organization who is praised, recognized, and acknowledged will go above and beyond the call of duty, in most instances, which includes being safer and keeping an eye out for their coworkers.

5. Teach and guide employees through coaching.

Here is the secret sauce: Effective communication, coaching, and mentoring are always going to play a instrumental part when it comes to overcoming complacency. See below a few tips for effective coaching to empower safety and the right mindset:

•  Ask questions. When you take the time to simply as questions, you are using the quickest way to learn more about how someone is doing and how they are feeling.
• Show they matter throughout the process. As a leader, you’ll send a powerful message when safety, operations, and the production disciplines connect together as one important package.
• Make sure your message is clear. When you engage in communication, keep it simple, easily interpreted, and understood. If a worker doesn’t seem to be following much from your interactions, perhaps you might need to dig deeper.
• Be consistent. Coaching an employee isn’t something that will transform behavior overnight. Manage to engage into regular feedback and you’ll see positive change over time, and my personal tip is to make them aware that you are noticing progress so they know you are not only engaging when they deviate from expectations.

Fighting a false sense of safety in the workplace can be a day-to-day challenge. The goal is to provide workers with skills—so they can be focused, remain aware, and make the right decisions—and structure, so that you can mitigate complacency as much as possible. At the end of the day, the choices we make today may save someone’s life tomorrow.

Here is a recap of the main concepts to take away:

To learn more, please feel free to contact me to help you develop strategies in your safety culture to manage safety complacency successfully.