What makes a great safety manager?

Are you a safety manager looking to hone your skills and move the needle forward in your organization? Maybe you’re looking to hire a quality safety manager who will contribute to improving working conditions, cutting incident-related costs at your company, and who will remain committed to fostering a positive safety culture. Either way, there are several qualities you need to look for and cultivate. From creativity to critical thinking, the best safety managers possess a variety of traits that lead to sound policies, productive training sessions and greater company-wide buy-in to safety initiatives.  We’ll take a look at a few key qualities below. 

They are leaders

The ability to positively influence people is crucial to getting safety initiatives off the ground. Creating new policies on paper is just the first step of the process, and workers need to buy in to new practices before any real results can be achieved.  Ask yourself the following questions: 

• Do the people I manage respect my expertise and value my contributions?
• Are people willing to follow my lead without enticement or fear of reprimand? 
• Do I lead by example, following and carrying out the practices that I recommend to others? 

They are goal-oriented

A dedicated, passionate safety manager can come up with all manner of policies that will reduce accidents and illnesses. Not every one of them can be put into place, however. For better or worse, working conditions, budgets and project demands will always influence the feasibility of potential policy changes.  

A truly effective manager will be able to focus on the big picture of any given safety concern and create policies that will reliably produce significant, measurable results. A deep understanding of the 80/20 rule is a plus. Most incident reductions will be the result of a few simple, well-thought-out actions, and getting caught up in the minor details will only produce fewer results at higher costs. 

They are fiscally smart

Budgeting is one of a safety manager’s most important tasks. Most businesses operate on thin margins, and while employers want to do everything they can to keep their workers safe and productive, they also have to keep their operating budgets in mind.  

A great safety manager needs the financial know-how to effectively allocate their limited resources. From personal protective equipment to employee training to machinery maintenance, every action that might improve safety will come at a cost. Choosing expenses wisely isn’t just a financial matter – it’s a serious safety concern. 

Managers also need to be able to demonstrate the ROI of safety management initiatives, whether it’s a new training program or a new safety software system.  

They have an unwavering moral compass

Safety personnel handle dangerous, life-or-death concerns daily, and an unwavering moral compass is a must. Commitment to worker safety is critical, as is dedication to safety policy regulations. Great safety managers are usually the types who can be trusted to always do the right thing, and to never take an easy but questionable path to solve a tough problem. 

They have the technical know-how 

Finally, any effective safety manager needs the knowledge and technical skills to excel at his or her job. An in-depth knowledge of regulatory concerns is a great starting point, but that knowledge needs to be combined with hands-on experience documenting, reporting, investigating and preventing work-related incidents. When training and instructing employees, safety managers must be able to explain how each new policy will actually affect the performance of specific tasks.