This document discusses how organizational culture shapes workplace safety. It argues that compliance with regulations alone does not lead to outstanding safety and that leadership is key. Safety should be viewed as part of high performance and linked to productivity, not just imposed as a limitation. Leaders need to ensure safety messages are consistent across all levels of management and do not conflict with other priorities like productivity. Thinking broadly about potential safety issues can help address hidden risks.

1. CARROT
OR STICK?
HOW CULTURE SHAPES
ORGANIZATIONAL SAFETY
ANTHONY RAJA DEVADOSS

2. 2 | CARROT OR STICK?
INTRODUCTION
Business is about making things happen. It’s about progress, achievement and growth. No
wonder the topic of workplace safety, which is about preventing things from happening,
can seem like a hard sell. From the outset safety issues feel like limitations, or worse still, like
impediments to speed, autonomy, and efficiency—and no one wants more of those at work.
What few organizations have grasped yet though, is that safety is an essential aspect of any
high-performing culture, and it’s also an indicator of overall organizational performance.
If you can achieve better safety outcomes, chances are you’ll also achieve better overall
performance. So, rather than creating barriers to productivity, safety-related behavioral
changes can in fact provide a springboard to improved productivity and competitiveness.
Better yet, most companies will already have the building blocks of this change, but it will
often require a new interpretation of company values, and a broader understanding of the
hidden safety issues present at all levels of the organization.
Compliance and regulation may be the ‘stick’, but leadership is the ‘carrot’, and to get safety
performance right, senior leaders will have some soul-searching to do all of their own.
In this series, we examine the reasons why every organization should:
After all, the results speak for themselves.
CONTENTS
3 THE STICK
8 FOLLOW THE LEADER

3. THE STICK
WHY REGULATION WON’T
SOLVE SAFETY ISSUES
IN THE WORKPLACE
ANTHONY RAJA DEVADOSS
1

4. 4 | CARROT OR STICK? | THE STICK
COMPLIANCE DRIVES EFFORT, BUT NOT RESULTS.
For most developed economies, the regulatory frameworks of occupational
health and safety are well understood and have contributed significantly
to reduced workplace accidents. For emerging economies, this evolution
will still have some way to go. However, there is an important lesson
to be learned from highly regulated industries and economies—
compliance alone does not lead to an outstanding safety record.
While it’s clear that compliance concentrates minimum approach. Typically, companies overtones. Nobody feels energized by these safety measures should also be assessed
effort on eliminating predictable risks, it ask themselves, “What do we need to do changes—we do them because we have to, as an opportunity to improve productivity,
doesn’t achieve the full range of benefits to comply with this legislation?” They then never realizing the bigger picture. retention and innovation, not just as
that can, and should, follow a strong set about making those changes, and those compliance measures.
safety culture. changes only. The question of what return Even in developed economies where safety
the business might receive as a result of that compliance is strong and has a long history, The more open to change, and the more
Safety laws can raise awareness and assign investment is rarely considered—it’s just seen there remains a significant ‘gap’ between innovative and performance-focused an
responsibility, but they rarely inspire ongoing as a ‘must-do’ and written down as expense. the possible benefits of regulation and its organization is, the more likely it will be able
change. Too often they direct action into just actual implementation. First and foremost, to take regulation in its stride, and even turn
one area of an organization. And as a result, The second problem with the compliance- this is because the link between building it into a new competitive opportunity.
employees are simply spurred to ‘comply’ so driven approach to safety is that the goal a safety culture and overall organizational
that they can get back to their ‘real’ work. can become the avoidance of penalty, which performance is not broadly understood.
places the safety measures in a negative
The problem with this is two-fold: first, context from the very beginning. They Before these benefits can be realized, our
it removes resources from other parts immediately become an extra ‘burden’, mindset needs to change. Safety needs to
of the organization without first being just one more issue to mitigate, and the be seen as one element of organizational
assessed in terms of return on investment, communication and implementation of performance, and one that should deliver
which instinctively drives this kind of bare the changes often comes with negative tangible return on investment. Inherently,

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SEEING THE ‘REAL’ TRIP HAZARD FOR EACH ROLE. If we know
that thinking beyond regulatory requirements is the first step to achieving the broader
benefits of a strong safety culture, the locus of safety initiatives needs to be addressed.
More often than not, due in part to practices or knowledge gaps. Nobody wants suppliers and contractors. For staff operating Understanding how behaviors may differ
compliance-based approach to safety issues the electrical cord to be left unattended, in emerging economies, safety may also across certain roles, markets and levels of the
in organizations, the majority (if not all) safety but facing up to the real safety issues that apply to local customs and legal frameworks. organization can help to focus relevant safety
initiatives are focused in operational, front- are present in each role requires some measures effectively. Sometimes, this also
line environments. Often, there can be large serious lateral thinking. After all, safety is not Even when cultural norms dictate a certain requires managers to take a step back from
gaps in the safety culture of different parts of just about preventing accidents, it’s about way of doing things, organizations need accepted ways of doing things, no matter
an organization with little understanding of creating a culture of wellbeing and high to figure out the safety implications for how natural and unavoidable they may
issues presenting in other environments. performance across the organization. workers. Can exceptions be made for the seem. If a true safety culture is going to be
way business is done in one part of the embraced organization-wide, it’s the tough
Too often, OH&S takes the form of significant When we begin to think laterally, it becomes world, if it wouldn’t be acceptable elsewhere? choices and decisions that are likely to give it
and valuable measures on the factory floor, clear that there are many aspects of Does their acceptability make them any the most strength and longevity.
but translates to menial hazards in the office. organizational practice that have potential more ‘safe’?
While tripping over a loose electrical cord to impact safety across a business. These
may well be a genuine hazard, chances are include policies and practices that touch all
it’s not the most serious safety issue facing employees, such as incentive and reward
office workers. Theirs are far more likely to be schemes, staffing levels and recruitment
found in more obscure issues, such as hiring practices, as well as relationships with

6. 6 | CARROT OR STICK? | THE STICK
THINK BROADLY ABOUT EMERGING ISSUES.
Industrial accidents obviously have the greatest immediate impact on
employee safety—when things go wrong on production lines, in mines or
oil rigs, the whole world is likely to find out about it. Yet, there are a number
of other issues that have the potential to undermine employee safety on
a large scale, or that can contribute to increased risk in other areas.
When attempting to take a broader look at In order to take a broader perspective of The ageing population is a particularly The breadth of these emerging issues is
safety issues across the organization, consider safety and address the factors that can relevant consideration for many workplaces. vast. It’s easy to look at a list like this and
things such as: lower performance across the organization As employees age, a greater number of wonder how any company would face such a
in less obvious ways, managers need to be health issues, both physical and mental, mammoth task of mitigating the impact of a
Psychological wellbeing and stress factors encouraged and taught to think about safety are likely to impact upon their performance worldwide ageing population, for example.
in terms of: and contribution at work. Also, the shift It’s doubtful that any organization will ever
ageing population
towards more flexible workplace practices reduce every risk to zero, and that’s not
1. employee and community ‘health’; such as at-home working or telecommuting the aim of a strong safety culture. Instead,
Employee culture and relationships—
is there high conflict between certain can reduce the oversight and impact that the aim is to help employees and managers
2. organizational productivity; and
departments or minority groups? traditional workplace practices can have on to think as broadly as possible about safety
3. company reputation. improving health outcomes for employees. issues to drive organization-wide behaviors
Lifestyle and disease factors in the local It’s important to consider new and innovative that lift overall performance.
community and workforce ways to engage employees who may not
attend an ‘office’ regularly in the health and
Styles of working, such as contract or
safety cause.
at-home workers

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THE FEEDBACK LOOP. Basic psychology will tell you that
human beings are adept deniers, and it’s easy for employees to
feel that health and safety messages do not apply to them—and
this is why feedback, and the right feedback, is so important.
Often, employees are reluctant to recognize productivity issues, positive reinforcement the organization with a consequence-free and employer, and between employer
risk factors in their own behavior and lifestyle, needs to be the starting point of any overhaul opportunity to learn, and that even the and the broader community. In this light
let alone in their work. There is an inherent of organizational safety. And managers need mistakes that do happen are opportunities it can be used as retention tool of real
risk that every employee feels when owning to be empowered to provide this feedback in for improvement. significance and genuine benefit to the
up to a mistake, and this is a serious problem a way that’s relevant for their teams. bottom line and beyond.
for building a robust safety culture. In fact, taking the safety message, in its
If communications and reporting mechanisms broadest context, to the heart of the Once management has grasped this link,
Linking identified risks with improvements on safety issues look for blame and organization and the employment conditions conveying to employees is relatively straight-
in overall performance will help employees encourage defensive behavior in managers of staff can in turn contribute to staff forward, because it is a natural extension of
to see the outcome of their mistakes. and workers, there’s virtually no hope for retention and discretionary effort. McKinsey how people generally want to work. They
Positive reinforcement works, and it’s part achieving the right outcome. Encouraging a research shows that employees need to feel want to feel valued, to contribute and to see
of creating the kind of feedback loop that management style that focuses on positive that their interests and the interests of the how their success impacts the business—this
generates ongoing improvement—and reinforcement is the best way to get people business are much the same, and what better is the carrot, and it’s also the test of true
hopefully improvements that spill out beyond to recognize issues and change behavior. demonstration of this than the common goals safety leadership.
the traditional ‘safety’ realm. of improving productivity and wellbeing?
Managers need to know that their role
To address the scale of the issues that present in identifying, recording and mitigating Rather than being just another compliance
themselves, and to ensure safety is simply a risks are a shortcut to other savings. burden, safety and wellbeing can be framed
springboard for employees to address overall They need to understand how this provides as a mutual obligation between employee

8. FOLLOW
THE LEADER
AVOIDING MIXED MESSAGES
IN SAFETY MANAGEMENT
ANTHONY RAJA DEVADOSS
2

9. 9 | CARROT OR STICK? | FOLLOW THE LEADER
STICK TO YOUR VALUES. Companies that perform well on
safety measures are more likely to be high performers in other areas
too. This suggests that having an overall operational strategy for high
performance can extend to safety issues, and possibly too that safety
performance has a positive impact on general operational performance.
Knowing that this link exists then raises the to an industry or a particular role in a way that the broad range of safety issues that can arise ‘Inclusivity’ is perhaps the dominant success
pivotal question, “How do you make safety having an entirely separate program cannot in any industry. factor when measuring safety culture—the
part of an overall operational strategy for do. It also avoids the ‘flavor of the month’ same rules must apply across the organization
high performance?” For example, the Australian-based mining and this is why a values-based approach
mentality to safety, where messages, banners
company Rio Tinto links safety performance works so well. If employees feel that the
and goals come and go.
Part of this answer may lay in the culture, to career progression, which fits with their safety culture is one of blame, negativity and
values and ways of operating that Employees are already accustomed to core values of accountability and teamwork. chastisement, it is less likely to be effective.
companies already employ. One of the translating what the company values mean One of 3M’s core values is to ‘value
best starting points for assessing the right employee initiative’, and their approach of Looking at safety through the lens of
to them and how they apply to their roles,
approach to safety for any organization is to incorporating supervisor-led fitness routines company values allows safety messages and
therefore it makes sense for safety to become
look at the values they already follow. This so- into daily meetings to address safety issues initiatives to align neatly with what employees
an extension of this rather than a short-term
called ‘values-based’ approach places safety is a natural extension of this value. After are already doing, thinking and feeling.
ideal. A values-based approach also clearly
issues within the existing cultural framework just one year of running the program, their
places safety in line with the overall cultural
of the organization and uses existing forums, safety scorekeeping systems showed they
goals of the company without having to
behaviors and language to incorporate the had reduced their recorded incident rate,
add it as a new value to the list. Although
safety message into daily working life. and had zero musculoskeletal injuries for the
some organizations explicitly state safety as
entire year.
The clear advantage of a values-based a core value, there is plenty of scope in the
approach is that it may identify particular risks interpretation of most values to incorporate

10. 10 | CARROT OR STICK? | FOLLOW THE LEADER
WATCH WHAT YOU SAY WHEN YOU’RE NOT TALKING.
Every organization needs to consider the mixed messages that can often come
through different levels of management, particularly regarding safety issues.
While line managers are busy delivering While the supervisor or line manager may All too often, staff in frontline roles can be
explicit directives to staff, senior leaders are be the right person to focus specific safety pro-active about taking extra precautions
often communicating in an implied fashion initiatives through, senior leaders need to and improve their wellbeing. Then, when
through the actual running and conditions recognize the implicit influence of their they start to hear about market pressures,
of the workplace. An awful lot can be ‘said’ decisions and actions on safety through to recruitment freezes, budget revisions and
through the overarching conditions of the lowest levels of the organization. ‘doing more with less’, safety measures are
the workplace. In fact, these things speak the first things to be dropped. It’s these
volumes about how serious an organization is Direct safety messages, such as those ‘indirect’ messages that have an impact on
about safety. bulletins from the CEO about the importance safety across the entire organization because
of safety, are fine, but they don’t have the staff suddenly begin to hear that the bottom
Strategic direction, policies, rules of most impact on actual safety practice. It’s line, or market share is more important than
conduct, core values—these can all affect one thing to ask people to think about safety. The internal hierarchy of messages
employees’ ability to comply with and focus doing things better and in a safer way, but that staff create depending on the timing
on safety requirements. And they can conflict what about how this conflicts with messages and number of directions they receive will
directly with what employees are being told about productivity, cost reduction and often have an unforeseen consequence for
by their direct managers. competitiveness? organizational safety.

11. 11 | CARROT OR STICK? | FOLLOW THE LEADER
LINKING PRODUCTIVITY, COST SAVINGS
AND EFFICIENCIES together with safety messages is key—
they cannot stand alone and therefore in opposition to each other.
Innately, employees will prioritize important for senior leaders to remember
management messages, and this may not be that even safety initiatives and practices that
in the order that delivers the best outcomes are employ-driven will be better received if
for the company. they have active leadership support, or that
they might fail without it.
For most employees, their relationship with
their direct manager or supervisor is the The fact is, a high-performing organization
defining factor in how they feel about their with high productivity is more often than
work, their role and the company as a whole. not a safe organization too—they go
In fact, for most people, their immediate hand-in-hand. Reducing turnover, reducing
manager is the company. Therefore, it makes accidents and injury and improving processes
sense for these leaders to be integral in to reduce or eliminate risks is what managers
the way safety is managed, promoted and are often asking, but this isn’t always what
perceived across the organization. But it’s employees hear.

12. 12 | CARROT OR STICK? | FOLLOW THE LEADER
STYLE IS IMPORTANT, TRUST IS EVERYTHING.
So, let’s assume you get your values right, and the employment
conditions are heading in the right direction. What about
leadership style? Is there one that’s better or worse for
encouraging a safety culture? Well, the short answer is yes.
The idea of ‘transformational leadership’—the Inspiring: they set high standards and through the hierarchical structure and then
kind of leadership that makes change happen communicate a vision that resonates acted upon—is that safety needs to be a
on an ongoing and seamless fashion—is not continuous improvement process. Relying
new, but it takes on a new meaning when Influencing: they provide a sense of on a culture where people wait to be told
we consider how it might effect the uptake purpose and mission, and instill a sense of what to do, when to do it, and how to do it,
of safety messages and the outcomes across pride and optimism in reaching it is unlikely to maintain high safety standards
an entire organization. There are four basic over the long term. Nor is it likely to deliver
These four attributes are particularly
elements to the transformational leadership the high performance culture that can
relevant to safety messages and behaviors
style, which can serve to be particularly integrate safety into it.
because they turn the focus away from a
relevant to safety behaviors of employees.
top-down, hierarchical management style Encouraging transformational leadership
Transformational leaders tend to be: where safety is ‘mandatory’ and focuses styles can provide some of the answers to the
instead on the positives and collective questions of creating the right conditions for
Challenging: they provide new ideas to outcomes of safety measures. safety consciousness in the workplace, but
improve problem-solving increasingly, the focus on leadership style has
The greatest motivation to move away
a missing piece: trust.
Engaging: they help employees commit from traditional, transactional leadership
to change styles—where messages are conveyed down

13. 13 | CARROT OR STICK? | FOLLOW THE LEADER
IT IS ONE THING TO MOTIVATE, influence and challenge
the workforce to operate at its best, but safety issues are part of a bigger
picture of corporate social responsibility and ethical business practices.
Taking on board some of the transformational Regardless of the level of the leader and This model of leadership, with trust at its
leadership style messages to move to a what they do, it’s important that they have center, may offer a framework for which
self-motivated and engaged workforce credibility to the audience. Every leader will safety can be applied. This kind of leadership
is part of the answer to improving safety need to ensure they take into account their requires leaders to rely on positive aspects of
and productivity simultaneously, but senior ability to: employees—their positive motivations and
leaders will also need to think about the actions to inspire and engage. It requires a
authenticity of their leadership. They will Be specific about what ‘safety’ looks like focus on self-motivation, self-awareness and
increasingly need to take on board the task of self-regulation. And it also requires a new
Be credible to who they’re speaking to
building trust in their workforce and a sense level of openness and honesty.
of mutual obligation. Be open, honest and positive in
Publically displaying results and being open
providing feedback
to input from all parts of the organization
Be accountable for outcomes are key to developing a trust-based,
transformational leadership style.

14. 14 | CARROT OR STICK? | FOLLOW THE LEADER
NEVER SAY YOU DIDN’T KNOW. Let’s say you get the
transformational, values-based approach working, and it’s working brilliantly.
You’re seeing the results, you’re communicating them and employees are
feeling good on all levels. There’s one sure fire way to turn that result on
its head in an instant and kiss your investment goodbye. When an incident
does happen, and particularly if it’s a large, public one, it’s to say things
like, ““I wasn’t aware that was happening” or “that wasn’t my decision”.
The uncomfortable truth about safety at work Leadership, and employees’ perceptions of in safety and productivity is lost. The first is Perhaps one of the most powerful things any
is that every bad decision and every injury their leaders, is one of the most important that big mistakes, and terrible accidents have company can do to promote safety is to stop
and every error has a root cause. Sometimes factors in the formation of a positive safety an immediate impact on the production—it asking “how safe are we as an organization”
it will be the poor judgement of an individual culture. Decision-making tends to snowball halts, and the fallout is ongoing. Second, and instead ask, “how trustworthy are we?”
employee, but when systemic failures arise in organizations and one small comment when executives have to front inquiries After all, it’s not really about safety, it’s about
and big mistakes happen, the leadership or change to policy can have far-reaching and panels, their focus is no longer on the trust. If we change the question we’re asking,
team has to step up and take responsibility, effects. If organizations are to preach self- business, it’s on defending what’s already often we’ll get a very different outcome.
even if they weren’t there when the mistake regulation, personal responsibility and self- failed and this is likely to drive the real causes
was made. monitoring, it must extend to the most senior of safety issues underground.
levels if it’s to work.
And the bigger the error, the more critical it is Last, but not least, statements such as “I
that someone important takes the wrap. This There is no formula to say to what extent don’t recall” or “I wasn’t present at the time”
is not because they are necessarily ‘to blame’, leaders should be held accountable for when asked to explain the origins of these
but rather that leadership is what people actions of their staff, even when they are not errors have a negative impact on share price.
need most in times of crisis. Yet, so often we present. But there are indicators that when The value of the company is damaged on
see decades of investment in safety ‘talk’ responsibility is shifted around and no one every level, sometimes never to be fully
come to nothing when things go wrong. steps up to take it, a great deal of investment recovered.

15. 15 | CARROT OR STICK? | FOLLOW THE LEADER
A CULTURE OF HIGH-PERFORMANCE
CAN, AND SHOULD, NATURALLY
INCLUDE SAFETY PERFORMANCE.
Companies that achieve one will likely achieve the other. And
if there were no other reason to pursue the goal of better
safety performance, surely this is compelling enough.
To start the journey, leaders will need to Safety is clearly about performance and
look long and hard at the implicit conditions productivity, but it’s also about trust. To turn
of the workplace and how they promote or a strong safety culture into a competitive
impede safety performance, as well as the advantage, senior leaders will need to
leadership styles of their management team. consider how their own behavior and
Do they have the skills and information to be decisions will impact the issue. And above all,
transformational? To inspire and generate a this will mean asking not “how safe are we?”
real sense of mutual benefit and obligation but instead, “how trustworthy are we?”
around the safety cause? And what of the
company values? These statements that are
the backbone of company culture—are they
robust enough to take on the safety and
wellbeing challenge?

16. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ANTHONY RAJA DEVADOSS is currently the Vice President—APAC with the
Outsourcing & Consulting Group of Kelly Services. From network services,
engineering to e-business solutions, Anthony Raja has worked in both India and
Malaysia, within technical roles to the Chief Executive Officer. He has received his
Bachelors degree in Science and his MBA in Marketing & Postgraduate Diploma
in Computing. He holds membership in various local and international associations
such as the MIM, Human Capital Institute & Association of Career Professionals International. He is
the Head of Policy Enablement & Government Liaison with Outsourcing Malaysia and a member
of the Industry Advisory Board for the Graduate School of Business, UNIRAZAK. He has been
recently appointed to the HR Capacity Building task force by the Ministry of Human Resources,
Govt of Malaysia. Anthony is also a member of the HROA APAC Chapter Board.
http://my.linkedin.com/in/anthonyraja http://twitter.com/anthonyraja
ABOUT KELLYOCG
KellyOCG is the Outsourcing and Consulting Group of Fortune 500 workforce solutions provider,
Kelly Services, Inc. KellyOCG is a global leader in innovative talent management solutions in the
areas of Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO), Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), Contingent
Workforce Outsourcing (CWO), including Independent Contractor Solutions, Human Resources
Consulting, Career Transition and Organizational Effectiveness, and Executive Search.
Further information about KellyOCG may be found at kellyocg.com.
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