Building Your Safety Culture From Within: The Power of Peer Mentoring
When it comes to establishing a safety culture, there are a number of obvious strategies available for us to use, such as indoctrination (orientations, training, safety bulletins, etc.), positive and negative behavioral reinforcement (recognition, awards, incentives, progressive discipline), and of course leading by example, to name a few. However, one methodology that seems to be regularly overlooked is the utilization of "peer mentoring" -i.e.; making use of those dominant and influential personalities within your organization who are not formally regarded as leaders to promote programs aimed at improving safety performance.
It goes without saying that workers influence and learn from each other as much or more than they do from their organization’s leadership since each employee is constantly providing the other with a constant reinforcement of behavior based on their own work ethic. Highly charismatic, assertive, and out-spoken employees, regardless of whether they act as positive or negative drivers in the workplace, will always have the ears of their coworkers and subsequently exude some degree of influence in the workplace when it comes to what is believed and accepted as appropriate behavior by the rest of their group as a whole.
Understanding the impact employees have on one another is the first step in developing a strategy which utilizes their influence to work positively for your safety goals. This isn’t a method for manipulation; it’s recognizing who within an organization may be a key asset for communication, and then encouraging those individuals to engage their peers as safety ambassadors for the benefit of all. This requires empowerment, which is the result of education and encouragement. Employees with a natural “gift of gab” or who seemingly, and without effort almost automatically generate a following wherever they go are ideal candidates, and these traits should be professionally nurtured and developed. As Henry Drummond once said, "Our success in influencing or elevating others is in proportion to their belief in our belief in them.".
The reason peer mentoring has such a huge potential for changing the personal values held by workers has to do with the ideas behind the need for social acceptance as previously expressed by Abraham Maslow’s 1943 paper titled A Theory of Motivation, in which he introduced his “Hierarchy of Needs”. In this pyramid, the second and third levels are “Esteem” and “Love and Belonging” and are tied to status, recognition, friendship, and sense of connection and relate directly to the associations we create with others -including those with whom we work. People who seem confident, are out-going, and who readily express their opinions become the shapers of behavior for others who may lack confidence, are afraid to ask questions out of a fear of appearing foolish, or who simply tend to “go with the flow” and can have a tremendous impact either postitively or negatively in the workplace.
When you think you have exhausted all strategies for facilitating employee buy-in or for improving their engagement in your safety programs, take some time to consider the men and women you already have within your ranks, and you just may discover an opportunity to reach workers on a daily basis through one or more individuals who by their very nature may just be some of the most effective agents of change you have. The question isn’t whether peer mentoring exists, it’s if you have acknowledged the impact it has upon your workforce and whether you are actively using the power of it to grow and improve.
