Communicating Safety Concerns with Emily Haas

NSSGA Podcast

Today, Libby is joined by Emily Haas, a research health scientist for NIOSH, which is the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Emily earned her PhD in Health Communications from Purdue University, and she has become a fantastic partner with NSSGA and a great advocate for this industry. In this episode, she shares her story about communicating health concerns.

Episode Highlights:

• In 2004, Emily’s cousin died in a motorcycle accident
• After realized that she didn't know how to appropriately or accurately communicate her safety concerns to even close family member, she wanted to learn how to communicate with other people who were engaging in risky behaviors
• This led to study Health Communications and eventually conduct research about several areas of risk communication and risk management
• She started with motorcycle safety specifically, but then, really started to focus on issues of Occupational Safety and Health specifically
• Emily has learned that, to communicate effectively, we really have to know and understand our workforce as a collective unit, but also individually, and that what may be a personal value to you may not be a personal value to your employee
• She believes that the job of leaders is to know and subsequently tailor the health and safety messages that they share
• The blurring of boundaries between work and personal life over the past couple years has resulted in leaders knowing a little bit more about their employees in terms of their unique struggles or motivators which can be helpful when trying to understand ways to encourage adoption of a new safety program or safety initiative
• Emily believes that now is the time to lead boldly with that balance of empathy based on who you're talking to, and to embrace changes that have happened the last couple of years
• Leaders must ask themselves, “What might my employees be receptive to and ready for in the workplace that I maybe didn't think was possible?”

Toolbox Talk Discussion Questions:

• In this episode, Emily shares about how she came to her career in communicating about safety. Does anyone want to share a story about safety communication in their own lives?
• How can we communicate about safety while using language that the audience can easily understand?
• Do you have a story about wanting to confront someone about a potentially unsafe practice, but not being sure how to do it?

Quotes:

“After my cousin's death, I really wondered what role I could have had in preventing that accident. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that even if I wanted to communicate with him about motorcycle safety or risky driving, I really didn't know what to say.”

“I wanted to learn how to communicate with other people who were engaging in risky behaviors.”

“Over the years, one of the things I've experienced is really the value of a different mantra, which is: I wanted to avoid telling people what to think, but rather what to think about.”

“Now's the time to lead boldly with that balance of empathy based on who you're talking to, and embrace changes that have happened the last couple of years.”

“What might your employees be receptive to and ready for in the workplace that you maybe didn't think was possible?”

“I think the message is really good, not just that we need to communicate about safety, but the ‘how we do it’, and even more importantly, ‘how it's landing on someone’. That piece really is a critical part of the puzzle.”

Links:

National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association website