September - 2019CONSTRUCTIONTECHREVIEW.COM8Have you had this moment: you are in the depths of solving a deeply complex technical issue in your EHS program, and some-one reminds you that it would all be better ­ or may not even matter - if you could just solve the culture problem? And there you are ­ the thing you cannot engineer or control runs right across your path like a deer on a darkly lit highway. Safety culture can be so ephemeral ­ there is a correlation between the number of people selling you ways to fix your culture and our collective failure to find repeatable ways to measure it and improve it.There are so many ways to market, sell, and position culture fixes, and it is because culture, engagement, discussion ­ all of it matters. At the bare minimum, it means lower costs, higher productivity, and a greater willingness to change. But just as the Grinch learned, we know engagement is not sold in a store. Real engagement comes from human connection. Relationships make a culture what it is, or what it is not. That is it. Article over. We know that, and I am sure you can visit a workplace and just sense the culture and whether it is working. But what we are still struggling to do is measure it. Everyone can gauge it by what they experience, yet so few have figured out how to measure it, and then, after measuring, what to do next.There is a path forward that we can all embrace, regardless of our scale. I will share how we do it at Amazon, and I think even though we have a large scale to consider, some of what we are doing could be leveraged at your own business. Measure, act, revise, repeat. The first step to measure culture of safety is to ask your employees about it. You do not need a tool or a gimmick to do that. Get some paper, and pass out the survey, make it anonymous. Pick a few things simple things you want to know about ­ Do you feel safe? Does your manager support you working safely? Do you have the tools you need to do your job safely? Many companies will do an HOW TO MEASURE TEAMS'By Carletta Ooton, Vice President, Health and Safety, Sustainability, Security & Compliance, AmazonVIEWS ON SAFETY?Carletta OotonIN MYOPINION
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