Mighty Line Minute: Influencing Safe Workplace Behaviors with Wes Wyatt

Greetings everyone, and welcome to another edition of Mighty Line Minute! Today I'm honored to bring aboard Wes Wyatt of Warehouse Safety Tips. You'll enjoy this session because we'll be talking about influencing safe behaviors in the workplace. Welcome, Wes, and let's get started.

Hey, Dave, thank you very much for having me on the podcast today.

So, Wes, when we talk about influencing safe behaviors and assuring positive outcomes, we often discuss leading by example, what can you tell us?

I believe a key takeaway that would be very beneficial to any location, whether it be just a general facility, a factory, a warehouse, it really doesn't matter, but a pre and post shift safety meeting. So, it can be very, very quick. Just something that goes over, the things that, you know have happened on previous shifts, and maybe something that happened on the shift that you were just on. Talk about it very quickly, and just let people know the things that maybe could have been prevented, to what could be done in the future to have it not happen again. So, I would say probably that key takeaway again would be those post and pre-shift meetings.

Wes, you're someone that's always working hard to set a safe example, and you do that in your podcast, of course. And just by the way you speak. But how do we do it on the shop floor? You know, who is responsible for that? Is that the supervisor? Is it all employees? Tell us a bit about how we do influence those behaviors by setting that example.

Yeah, when it comes to PPE, especially as an individual, if you see your, you know, powers-that-be, whether it be maintenance or, you know, possibly management walking through and taking off hard hats. Maybe removing their safety glasses, not wearing gloves, you know, getting under guards. I mean, doing the things that you're not supposed to do. That is definitely a no-no, because you should always lead by example. But I would say that the biggest thing is, is by always fostering that, you should be wearing it at all times, no matter what. And being the kind of walking billboard for that, is the best thing that you can do.

So true, Wes. You know, I see you as a plant manager, walking that shop floor, exuding positive behavior for others and setting that example that all need to take, knowing also that supervisors require that same behavior. But more importantly, all employees need to demonstrate that. What else can you tell us?

The other thing is just like if you see something, you should say something. If you see somebody doing something, it's always a good idea to point out why they should be wearing it and just give them a real example. You saw somebody that didn't have their hair up, get a piece of hair torn out and sucked into a machine. You know, you saw someone get burned. You saw someone get a shard of metal in their eye. And you don't have to make it a horror story. You can just say, man, you know, you really need to wear those, you know, because if nothing else, you could get in trouble. It could cause a loss of production. I mean, there's a lot of ways you can kind of spin it, but, you know, at the very basic level, making sure that you go through and regardless of what everyone else is doing, you kind of treat yourself as the safety coordinator and always do it. 

Yeah, so in that adage, "See something, say something," is so true. It's critical that all employees are not afraid to bring something forward, to identify problems, risks, hazards, unsafe behaviors. All of that is critical to achieve continuous improvement in the business process.

One of the other things that I did on my own that I don't think the person that hired me ever expected. I also pointed out the things that were being done right. You know, letting them know the people that go about their business every day and, you know, don't say a word about it, but yet are always doing the right thing, leading by example.

So I would say that always take the opportunity, whether it's good or bad. If you see someone doing something good, walk over and say, you know what? I always see you with your safety glasses. Good job! You know, if you see someone, you know, without a bump cap on, and they're supposed to be wearing a bump cap, walking over and letting them know why they need to wear it, and giving them just a very quick, not, authoritative, take on it, but more I really want you to go home safe to your children, or safe to your dog or, just safe at home, you know, there's always a positive way to spin it. 

You know, in my career it was always interesting to walk into a workplace where you knew from the moment that you entered, that you were in a place that cared about their employees.

We are all in charge of safety ourselves. So, when someone says, you know, who is in charge of safety at your location, I think a great answer is just that. "I'm in charge of safety!"

But the one thing that they've always got to pay attention to in the workplace is the issue of complacency. So, we've always got to make sure that we're doing our best effort for continuous improvement, and assuring that we get better day-by-day.

But if you let people know that, you know, you consider yourself to always be in charge of yourself and to be safe at all times. That's a great answer. And, there's a thousand different ways to spin that. But I think that safety begins with you and spreads out. So, just making sure that you take ownership of your own safety.

Well, Wes, as you know, Mighty Line Tape take safety very seriously, as they do with operational excellence and 5S initiatives. And therefore, we all know that making those types of improvements are critical to assuring a safe work environment. 

So, Wes, thanks for taking time with us today. Be good, stay safe, and we'll see you again on the next Mighty Line Minute!