Dominic Ashley-Timms, CEO of performance consultancy Notion, examines how those managing work sites can foster an improved culture of safety in construction and motivation to improve efficiency and attract the next generation
Construction is the UK’s most dangerous industry, reporting more than twice as many work-related deaths than agriculture, forestry and fishing, and manufacturing.
For managers, efficiency is key, but keeping people safe is also the highest priority. What if there was a way to achieve both simply by learning to approach people management differently?
What if managers could foster an improved culture of safety in construction while increasing efficiency and attracting new people?
The current state
Under pressure to stay on schedule and within budget, the fast pace and stress levels associated with construction projects can make managers highly directive.
This fosters a culture of authority and servitude in the extremes, where employees simply follow orders. Or they walk. Construction has a higher average labour turnover rate than any other industry in the UK and is currently facing exceptionally high staff shortages.
In its 2019 report, Behaviours, Cultures & Performance in the Construction Industry, the CITB noted an urgent need for “growing cultures of openness, collaboration, trust and quality” by “valuing behavioural and interpersonal skills training more highly and increasing its uptake”.
Only 17% of the 600 construction firms interviewed had conducted appropriate training in the prior 12 months.
The command-and-control approach is outmoded
Within the construction sector, a strict hierarchy can mean that relationships are managed counterproductively, with managers perpetuating the style of managers they’ve worked for.
We call this the command-and-control approach, and it’s common in a range of sectors. When an employee asks for assistance, managers are quick to jump in to solve the problem for them.
However, offering solutions and directing takes responsibility away from your employees, denying them the opportunity to develop. If you think on behalf of someone else, they’ll continue to come to you with issues instead of thinking through how they might resolve them themselves.
Using an enquiry-led approach to foster an improved culture of safety in construction
Mistakes are not easily rectified in a busy construction environment where high standards are paramount.
When something goes wrong on site, particularly when safety has been compromised, it’s perhaps not surprising that the immediate reaction will likely be inflammatory.
Of course, it’s important to impress upon workers the dangers associated with unsafe practices and to highlight the gravity of the situation.
However, reacting in the heat of the moment with criticism or blame isn’t likely to bring about an enduring change in behaviour.
Choosing an appropriate time to encourage people to develop their own “mental model” of personal safety would prevent them from behaving in the same way in the future, improving overall safety on site.
By adopting an enquiry-led approach in which managers pose more powerful and insightful questions, workers have to construct new insights for themselves rather than being told. Depending on the circumstances, you might not want to act in the immediate aftermath but instead, schedule time afterwards when there is less emotion.
During the conversation, ask questions like “What could have been the impact of that?”, “Who else would have been affected?” or “What could we have done to achieve a different result?”
This style of question guides employees to make links between their behaviour and the outcome, creating unconscious and long-term changes to their mental model when faced with similar situations in the future. It also cultivates a more respectful atmosphere where employees have been engaged in a way that they feel psychologically and physically safe.
Developing an Operational Coaching style of management
Practitioners who learn to use more of an enquiry-led approach (where there’s the potential to drive better outcomes), can be described as having adopted an Operational Coaching style of management. The UK government recently sponsored significant research into the impact of this new approach.
In a study by the London School of Economics (LSE) spanning 62 organisations drawn from 14 sectors, managers followed an experiential learning programme called STAR Manager.
As they progressed through the programme, they developed their awareness and adopted new people management behaviours that led to a six-fold improvement in employee retention.
Moreover, 48% of the successes reported by managers undertaking the programme related to increased engagement and productivity.
Jewson and National Express also noted improvements in yard and driver safety respectively, when their managers learned and applied this new approach to managing others.
With the estimated cost of injury and ill health to the construction sector exceeding a staggering £1.2bn, it is remarkable that the negative impact of poorly trained managers isn’t being more actively addressed.
In any workplace, managers lay the foundations for building a culture of safety and productivity. Without competent and well-trained line managers equipped with the behavioural and interpersonal skills highlighted by the CITB, the construction industry will continue to pay.
Construction leaders must urgently invest in upskilling their managers to extract the maximum talent from every team member.
This will only be achieved when managers can engage their colleagues in making real behaviour changes, enabling them to think independently and contribute to a safer, more intentionally reflective working environment. And who wouldn’t want to work on a site like that?
Dominic Ashley-Timms
CEO
Notion
Tel: +44 (0) 1926 889885
