Employee engagement and workplace safety performance improvement

¶ … Raines, M. (2011). Engaging employees: another step in improving safety. Professional Safety, 56(4): pp. 36-34. Retrieved from: ProQuest Database.

Major Thesis

The article asserts that successful organizations involve employees at all levels in various aspects of the business and additionally value their input. To create a fully-encompassing corporate culture, employees must be involved and engaged and have the opportunity to provide input and changes to their workplace, providing a positive link between employee engagement, employee involvement and safety performance (Raines, 2011, p. 37). While it is often difficult to continuously improve safety performance within an organization over time, the inclusion of employee engagement has been directly correlated with the changes being made in a more timely and effective manner.

Raines notes that employee engagement is directly related to the amount of involvement that employees have in their work processes and activities (Lockwood, 1997, p.8). Therefore, employee involvement in safety is critical to ensuring that they become engaged in the safety aspects of their work and additionally in the organization's safety program. Further, research has noted that companies who engage their employees experienced 62% fewer safety incidents than units with lower employee engagement (Harter, et al., 2006, p. 1). How, then is an employee considered to be "engaged" within an organization, and therefore less likely to become involved in an incident of lapsed safety?

Raines notes that in order for employees to feel truly engaged in the safety process, the organization for which these employees work must generate several factors in its standards and practices including: employee involvement, consideration of employee ideas, communication, positive feedback, and respect. Such notions seem simple enough to include, but the benefits that can be gained through their inclusion are significant. Raines notes that in doing something as simple as asking employees for their opinions regarding work processes or equipment, rather than assessing from an outside perspective, safety lapses can be alleviated and avoided all-together. In assuring that employee opinions are valued and taken seriously, company higher-ups along with these employees are better adept at creating a work environment that is based on education, communication and skill, making the process a collaborative and therefore an "engaged" one.

Conclusion

In assessing Megan Raines' article, it is becomes clear that employee engagement is most certainly correlated to the amount of involvement that employees have in their everyday work processes and activities. As these employees are the individuals who must utilize such processes and procedures on a day-to-day basis, it is imperative that these individuals also maintain a strong sense of personal engagement with the roles that they play within an organization. In engaging these employees at the most basic personal level, employers and company managers will likely see a downward shift in safety incidents and an upward shift in employee morale and overall health and safety. The benefits of such an application are unparalleled in terms of effectiveness and allocation of costs. As Raines notes in her own conclusion, the ideas and feedback from employees regarding their safety must be valued and acted on as appropriate, and employees need to be given positive feedback when they work safely, along with being treated with respect at all times (Raines, 2011, 34). In doing so, engaged employees who have a say in the safety processes within a company will have not only higher safety performance levels, but higher company loyalty and morale.