Podcast - Safety in the Private Sector

[00:00:00] How do you influence safe work practices when your organization does not operate for profit or if they can't even be fined? That is a struggle. So many safety professionals working in the public sector find themselves in. The answer comes down to identifying one key metric. Let's get into it.

Hello, hello, hello.

My safety friends. If you have been following me [00:01:00] for a while, then you know that the systems and processes that I teach are all centered around influencing your team and changing their beliefs when it comes to the value that safety provides the organization. And I talk a lot about demonstrating that value and giving a return on investment for safety.

And we're always talking numbers, we're always talking money and how safety is actually a profit center. And this could be really easy to do when you're working for a company whose goal is to make money. But recently I've had several students come into Safety Management Academy who work in the public sector.

And this dynamic changes because in that sector, the goal is not making money. So today I wanna discuss the challenges of the public sector and how you [00:02:00] can still apply the safety management influencer system, even in this type of environment. Let's get to it.

So first and foremost, for those of you that don't know, let's talk about what the public sector is.

And the public sector is government entities. It could be local, state, national, it could be organizations that are owned by the government, operated by the government. Funded by the government. So what I want you to think of is like education, like schools or universities, public transportation, like buses or trains.

Public social services. Think like family and health. Like if family and child services was to come out or do something. Welfare services, clinics. Parks and rec are also part of the public sector. First responders like police, fire, the justice [00:03:00] system as well. They're not first responders, but the justice system is public sector as well.

And what makes the public sector so different is that they are required to follow the regulations, but they can't be fined. Because it doesn't make sense for the government to find itself right now. It's not that they don't have to follow the regulations 'cause they do. In fact, a lot of times they're held to a higher standard because that public sector, they're public facing, right?

They're, they're stakeholders are the public. So sometimes they're held to a higher standard, but oversight from regulators may be more flexible. It might be reduced a little bit. Like they don't, they don't really get OSHA inspections like a private sector would. And you know, the regulating bodies.

Give them a little bit more flexibility on implementation as well. So they don't have this regulatory body like [00:04:00] hanging over them that a lot of organizations do. Some for-profit or private, private sector organizations do. Public sectors also have very, very limited resources and budgets. And when I say very, I mean extremely limited.

Like if you're working in safety in the public sector, you are likely well underpaid. I remember one time I was applying for safety jobs and I knew the public sector was gonna be lower. Salary, but I really like the county that I lived in and I was like, if I can get back to my community by taking that lower salary, I'm willing to do that.

And they posted the job for like $85,000. And when they interviewed me, they said, just to tell you upfront, the job only pays 55,000. And I was like, but your ad said 85. They said, yeah, I don't know why they put that. It only pays 55. That's my budget. And I was like, you're not gonna get good [00:05:00] people. For that rate.

And they go, yeah, we know, but that's our budget and we're kind of stuck. So keep that in mind with public sector. I think it's a great way to learn, especially if you are service minded. Just like how I was willing to take that pay cut to work in the public sector. I get that. 'cause you're servicing your community but it is very, very limited budgets and very, very limited pay.

They don't make money in the public sector, right? Their motivations are not about making money. So that's the biggest difference in the public sector. Now, I don't want you to confuse public with nonprofit, okay? Because nonprofits don't necessarily make money either, like at their profit and loss statement at the end of the year should not show any profit or very little profit.

So. But that doesn't mean that they're the same as a public sector, right? Nonprofits do have to make money. It's just distributed differently. Some make [00:06:00] it through like donations or they make money through profits. For nonprofits, the profits are distributed differently. They're distributed to a collective or a co-op or, or a group, or they're distributed social causes like donations or things like that.

So I don't want you to confuse, like if you're working for a nonprofit. Is that the same as public sector? Nonprofits are just like any other business. It's just how they distribute their profits at the end. The goal of nonprofits is still to make money and to make the most profit that they can.

It's just that profit then gets distributed differently. All right, so let's get back to public sector. So the difficulties in public sector is that the traditional methods of safety management that are taught out there, not, not the stuff I teach, but the traditional methods that people come into our industry and learn.

They don't scare the organizations in the public sector. So like when you come into safety, a lot of people like throw the [00:07:00] code of federal regulations at you or, or tell you like, your job is all about compliance. And they use, you know, if you don't do this, OSHA's gonna fine. You or OSHA's gonna come and inspect us.

Like that. Fear based safety management will not work in the public sector because they don't have that fear. OSHA's not gonna come inspect them. OSHA's not gonna find them. I would say their greatest fear is the public probably finding out or lawsuits, civil lawsuits from the public. So that's one of the difficulties and that's why people who come into Safety Management Academy.

That we don't focus on that. We've never focused on that. So it's really not any different. It is very little difference how you treat public and private when it comes to our method of safety management. So when it comes to safety management, there are two groups of people that you need to pay attention to, that you need to have your systems and processes operate around. One is [00:08:00] employees and one is the management team. Now, the way that we teach Safety Management Academy and the way that you should be doing safety management, the way that.

You deal with employees just doesn't change whether you're in the private sector or the public sector. You still always wanna get employee engagement. And the employee engagement within safety should always be about their personal interests. It should never be, you should do this because the company is telling you to do it whenever you are.

Coaching or training or influencing an employee, it's always about what is in their personal interest. So when you're private or public, you're still doing the same thing. So all of your systems and processes that work to improve employee engagement are gonna work the same exact way when it comes to the public sector.

Now, the biggest metric, the biggest change between the two is that motivating metric with your management team. Right. So when we talk to [00:09:00] managers, typically in a good safety management system, we're talking about the money aspect, the return on investment, the value that safety provides. That's not a motivating factor in the public sector.

So this is the biggest difference and the key metric that you need to identify right away if you are working in the public sector so what you need to identify is what are their motivating goals? Like what are the motivating goals for the organization? Right? How do they measure success? How does the head of your department measure success?

And what are their goals? So. I'm a safety person working in the parks and rec department. I wanna know the head honcho of the Parks and rec department. What are their goals? How are they measuring success? So this could be like public perception or public trust. It [00:10:00] could be how the public evaluates that department and what they think about that department.

It could be quality. It could be budget, it could be the number of people that department has served or helped, or the success rate of anything that they have done. So you need to be asking like, what is the end result that your department, your organization, that you're part of? What are they creating, and then what are the performance metrics that they're measuring?

Right, and, and that they're measured against? So another thing to look for is if there is a mission statement. So a lot of public organizations, a lot of businesses as well, they will have a mission statement about a year ago, I had the privilege of speaking to the US Army Corps of Engineers.

If any listeners are out there, thank you for hosting me. That was an amazing event. I really appreciated it. But in preparing for that event, I met with a lot of their head people and it [00:11:00] was shared with me their mission statement for their department, which was safely completing quality projects. On time and within budget.

So there was a mission statement, a guiding principle for that organization because the US Army Corps of Engineers, that's public sector, right? So they're not out there to make money, but they are out there to safely complete quality projects on time and within budget. And when you think about what they are measured against.

They are measured against like any injuries that happen in the work that happens. That's the safety of it, right? Completing quality projects, like if they're helping rebuild a bridge or something like that, needs to be done. Quality on time, meaning like we don't want it to take 10 years or 15 years or something like that.

We have a planned deadline for this. We're gonna meet that deadline and within the budget that we predicted, so. That is our [00:12:00] motivating metric. And that's the thing that if you're working in the public sector, you need to identify right away. And everything in your safety program needs to always be connected to that motivating metric.

So think how are they measuring success? How does your department measure success? What are their goals? What are their performance measurements? And get those key metrics. Now, once you have those metrics, pretty much everything else you do within the safety management system is the same because I have never taught you or anybody in Safety Management Academy to focus on regulations.

So we don't use the threat of regulations. We're always influencing people to do what is safe. Anyway, and that if you do what's right for people, the regulations fall into place no matter what. I also teach that you DIY, your safety program because honestly, most of you out there on very limited budgets, whether you're in private or public sector, [00:13:00] that you are not given the nice, fancy tools or software programs or anything like that.

I mean, it's great when you have them. Kudos to you, but I would say 90% of my students don't have access to those things, so they're gonna have to DIY, their safety program. And in the public sector, you're gonna have to do that too, because you just don't have the budget. And then you always wanna connect your work.

To the end result. So when you are demonstrating the value that safety provides, instead of it being a monetary value, it is a value connected to whatever that motivating metric is. So you wanna ask yourself, how does safety make that end result better, easier, or faster? That is, that's how, what you need to explain is how does safety make it better?

How does it make it easier? How does it make it faster? This applies to private as well, but it's just, we also have money to kind of help us along on the private sector, but [00:14:00] better, easier, faster. Remember those three? The influencer system works the same in the public sector as well. You need to understand and use all the hidden triggers of psychology and marketing to influence your team's decisions.

You need to have operational expertise to understand your job and be exceptional safety manager, as well as how the organization works, and so that way they see value. That safety is providing, right? They see value in following the safety processes. And you do that by having the business acumen for your public sector department to connect safety to their motivating metrics.

And you also need to have strategic engagement to give them some ownership in the safety processes. So that way they're internalizing the value of those safety processes. Those are our three pillars [00:15:00] of the influencer system, the hidden triggers, the operational expertise, and the strategic engagement. The biggest change is that your ROI number that you're giving when you're connecting value may not be a dollar figure, right?

So when we talk about return on investment. In the public sector, it will be a measurement of the impact on their results. The better, faster, easier. Right? That is your ROI. Now, I wanna caution you against using budget savings or reduced expenses as your ROI. Or as a motivating factor. So it's a very obvious measurement when it comes to safety, whether you're in private or public, that when safety is done right, it does actually save the company money.

We've reduced accidents or, you know, better processes, increase productivity, all those things. It does [00:16:00] save the company money. It does save the budgets, right? So as you're working in the public sector, what you'll see is the safer way to do things is more efficient, and then it does reduce that budget, or does, does go, it doesn't reduce the budget.

It, it, you know, and it does come in below the budget amount, and you do reduce expenses, right? Because you're not gonna have as many accidents or injuries, or you're gonna have better preventative maintenance. So in the public sector, if you focus on those things, that safety is saving them money.

Safety is reducing expenses. Safety helps you come within budget. If that is your focus, you're actually gonna create problems for yourself in the future. Because what will happen is if you continually come under budget, future budgets will be reduced, and then your job becomes harder.

You actually don't want to come in below budget. You wanna come in near budget, slightly over budget, so that way next year they increase your budget, not just by inflation costs, but a little bit more because you had our budget too [00:17:00] tight, right? If you have a history of reducing costs, then you are expected that those costs stay reduced.

So that's why I want you focusing more on their motivating metrics. So as you are talking about safety, when you. Promoting safety within the public sector. You very rarely talk about budget savings and reduce expenses. You talk more about all their motivating factors, and this kind of holds true in private as well because.

In my experience, I have worked for a nonprofit and I have also worked, for a for-profit company. I've never worked in public sector, but in both organizations, what I found is that if I come in under budget all the time, then my budget for the next year is decrease. And I don't want a decreased budget because things change and better things come out and I want more money and resources, right?

So you really [00:18:00] need to do what you can to stay at budget or slightly above like, you know, half a percent above budget or something like that. The first time this became apparent to me was we were at the end of our fiscal year at our organization we worked for a corporate office and the corporate office set our budget right for the entire year.

We had a banner year. We made so much money 'cause we had an exceptional quality program. An exceptional transportation program. An exceptional safety program. We were the highest profit location for the entire division. It came the end of the year and my CFO is calling me and he's like, Hey, what's on your wishlist?

I have money that needs to be spent? And I was like, oh, here we go. I told him everything that I would want, and I got a lot of it. And I asked him why and he's like, we have to spend it. 'cause if we don't, we're gonna get a reduced [00:19:00] budget next year. And I don't want that. So I would rather they see that it took our entire budget to make that money and.

That's when I connected it to my non-for-profit that I worked for. Because when I worked for this non-for-profit, we always had the fanciest tools and the nicest offices and everything, and I was like, this is so great. We have so much money all the time. And what it came down to was they did not wanna reduce budgets.

So we would work all year long to make sure that we stayed below budget. And at the end of the year, any surplus was spent because otherwise the cooperative that they represented would then reduce their budget the next year. So always keep that in mind. So that's the big caution I would say in working with the public sector, if you are constantly talking about reducing expenses, you're gonna, you know, shoot yourself in the foot in the future.

So really find that motivating metric. [00:20:00] And connect everything you do to that motivating metric, right? All right. So that's what I have for you today. I hope you got a lot out of this, whether you're in private or public sector. I hope I didn't sway you away from public sector 'cause the budget thing is kind of tight with them, but.

It is still like a good public service working in those organizations. If you need help implementing any of this, like the safety management influencer system, any part of our systems or processes into your organization, then I encourage you to check out Safety Management Academy. We are the best at doing this, that when you have our systems and processes in place, it just organically.

Builds that influence for your safety program. Alrighty, my safety friends. I will chat with you next week and I hope that you have an amazing one. Bye for now.