How can you build a safety leadership team?

1 Identify your goals

Before you start recruiting or assigning members to your safety leadership team, you need to have a clear vision of what you want to accomplish with this team. What are the main safety challenges or risks that your organization faces? What are the best practices or standards that you want to follow or exceed? How will you measure and evaluate your safety performance and improvement? Having specific, realistic, and measurable goals will help you define the scope, roles, and expectations of your safety leadership team.

2 Select your members

The next step is to choose the people who will make up your safety leadership team. Ideally, you want a diverse and representative group that can reflect the different perspectives, experiences, and needs of your workforce. You also want people who have the skills, knowledge, and attitude to lead by example, influence others, and collaborate effectively. Depending on the size and structure of your organization, you may want to include senior managers, supervisors, safety specialists, frontline workers, union representatives, or external consultants. You should also consider the availability, commitment, and workload of the potential members, and ensure that they have the support and resources to participate in the team.

3 Define your roles

Once you have your team members, you need to clarify their roles and responsibilities within the team. You may want to assign specific functions or tasks to each member, such as chairing meetings, conducting audits, facilitating training, or communicating with stakeholders. You may also want to establish some ground rules or norms for how the team will operate, such as meeting frequency, decision-making process, conflict resolution, or feedback mechanisms. By defining your roles, you will create a sense of accountability, ownership, and trust among your team members.

4 Develop your plan

The next step is to develop a plan for how your safety leadership team will achieve your goals. Your plan should outline the strategies, actions, and timelines that your team will implement and follow to address the safety issues or opportunities that you have identified. Your plan should also include the indicators, methods, and tools that you will use to monitor and evaluate your progress and outcomes. Your plan should be realistic, flexible, and adaptable, and should align with your organization's vision, mission, and values.

5 Engage your stakeholders

The success of your safety leadership team depends not only on its own performance, but also on the engagement and involvement of your stakeholders. Your stakeholders are the people who are affected by or have an interest in your safety initiatives and practices, such as employees, managers, customers, suppliers, regulators, or community members. You need to communicate with them regularly, clearly, and transparently, and solicit their feedback, input, and support. You also need to recognize and reward their contributions, achievements, and improvements, and celebrate your team's and your organization's milestones and successes.

6 Review and improve

The final step is to review and improve your safety leadership team's performance and impact. You should conduct periodic and systematic reviews of your team's activities, results, and challenges, and compare them with your goals and expectations. You should also solicit and analyze feedback from your team members and your stakeholders, and identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that your team faces. Based on your findings, you should make adjustments, corrections, or innovations to your plan, roles, or strategies, and seek continuous improvement and learning for your team and your organization.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?