Safety Awakening – “Feel Their Pain”
December 26, 2014 No Comments
“Feel Their Pain”
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When Bill Clinton was President, he used to say in his speeches to the American public – “I feel your pain”. This was his way of connecting with his audience, and showing them that he cared and had empathy for them and their problems. Similarly, Safety Managers can use this same technique to show injured employees that they truly care about the injured employees well-being and recovery.
Specific things that I did to show injured employees that I personally “felt their pain” was to:
- Render first aid to injured employees
- Help clean up the blood after an accident
- Drive the injured employee to the emergency room for medical treatment (only for non life threatening injuries)
- Notify the employees’ family of the accident
- Visit the injured employee in the hospital
- If the employee dies, go to the funeral
- Tell the employee to contact you if they feel mistreated or cheated by the insurance company
- Do not blame the employee for the accident, or allow others to do so (unless the accident was caused by the employees’ use of alcohol or illegal drugs)
- Periodically call the injured employee at home while they are healing
- If released to light duty but they can’t drive a car, drive the injured employee to and from work
- Supervise the light duty work assignment
- Change the employee’s bandages at work
Practice the above, and you’ll show all your employees that you are not just another manager who cares only about profits and expenses ( $ ). You genuinely care about each and every employees’ health and well-being! Also, by doing these things, you will feel closer to the employees than ever before, and you’ll be more vigorous and impassioned when championing safety improvements with managers and executives.
Awakenings