EFI Leadership Teams Improve Engagement Through Trust Building and Communication
While planning and policy creation are an important piece of any safety program, to be truly effective, there must be buy-in and trust from an engaged workforce. Studies have found that an engaged workforce means a safer work environment.
One study reported that engaged employees were five times less likely than disengaged employees to have a safety incident and seven times less likely to have a lost-time safety incident. Another found that disengaged employees have 64% more accidents than workers who say they’re engaged with their job.
Employees are in the best position to know whether safety policies are working. When there is trust and buy-in for a safety program, not only will employees follow safety protocols, they’ll be willing to speak up to report violations or observed areas for improvement. Having feedback from the workforce ensures your operation’s safety program can remain relevant, up to date and effective.
How EFI Leadership Teams Improve Workplace Safety
EFI Leadership Teams contribute to improved workplace safety by providing a platform for a feedback loop and deepening employee trust and engagement by incorporating worker voice.
Creating a Feedback Loop
Having a communication system in place to both disseminate information and receive feedback is imperative for a safety program to function effectively. According to a 2023 study, improving communication about safety is the number 1 way a business can help employees feel that safety is a priority. The EFI Leadership Team provides a communication platform that reaches the entire workforce through its membership of cross-level, cross-functional representatives, enabling a company to give ear to the ideas and feedback of each and every member of the workforce.
Stemilt Growers, a grower, packer, shipper of apples in Washington State recently completed a series of projects brought to management’s attention by way of worker suggestions, including a crosswalk in the parking lot to concentrate employee foot traffic and raise awareness of pedestrians for drivers. After the crosswalk was completed, employees weren’t utilizing it as intended, and the EFI Leadership Team was able to add signs and incorporate safety information about the crosswalk into an existing training to increase use of the crosswalk.
Other worker-led safety projects for Stemilt include the addition of fans throughout the packing shed for seasonal temperature regulation, replacing the indoor painted safety pathway with longer-lasting reflective tape, lowering storage racks so they are accessible to more staff members without needing a specific forklift and replacing wooden platforms with easy-to-see, easy-to-clean metal platforms on the packing line.
Building Trust
As employees see their suggestions and ideas put into action, trust in the Leadership Team increases and they are more likely to speak up when they see areas that need improvement.
Maribel Mendoza, Food Safety Manager, Hartley Produce, who manages employee safety has seen the same effect of follow through on worker-led projects, “In trainings we teach personal safety and with the EFI Program, employees are more aware because they’re seeing the changes out on the floor, the safety vests for visibility, the bump caps for head protection, gloves to make sure there is no cross contamination. And it’s making them ask questions and encouraging them to speak up when they have an idea of something that can help.”
Establishing an effective safety program is not independent from overall worker satisfaction and retention; one recent study found that the safer employees felt, the more engaged they were and the less likely to leave.
Azucena “Suzy” Villa, Jr. Business Partner of Learning and Development for Stemilt Growers echoes this finding in her reflections on the effect of her work with the EFI Leadership Team, “When the Leadership Team does a project and it makes the workers’ lives easier, I feel proud of myself and proud to work for Stemilt. It’s amazing because our voices are heard and workers know, ‘I can talk to my Leadership Team, and they will come up with a solution.’ The workers here are more engaged, and they don’t want to leave. And that’s what we want, we want them to stay working for Stemilt.”
EFI’s certification program supports building trust by facilitating worker-led improvements and establishing communications systems enabling an engaged workforce to become your company’s greatest safety resource.
Find out more about how EFI can help you access the expertise of the entire workforce to improve safety at your fresh produce operation, or contact Madelyn Edlin to learn more.
