In the second in a two-part series, Sean Trainor examines how companies can more effectively communicate with their employees. The first part can be found here.
As the First World War broke, the Great Western Railway’s management initiated the ‘Safety’ movement and the supporting ‘Is it safe?’ communications campaign. This was a radical departure from the rules and regulations-based approach to changing behaviour previously adopted. It used innovative use of media, including photographs, posters and personal issue safety tokens to grab the employee’s attention.
Great Western Railway “safety” talisman 1922 London, Midland & Scottish Railway poster 1940
The tone of the communications were much more conversational than the rules and regulation handbooks introduced 15 years earlier, although it still often implied that the worker was to blame and there would be consequences for non-compliance:
24 (a) The servants of the Company must not expose themselves to danger; and are requested to prevent, as far as they possibly can, such exposure on the part of their fellow-servants, and to spare no opportunity of warning those who neglect to take proper care.
(b) Reckless exposure of himself or others to danger, on the part of any servant of the Company, will be treated as an offence against the Company’s Regulations, and punished accordingly.
North British Railway Company, Rules and Regulations 1898
For the remainder of the 20th century print, which is a typically a ‘hot’ medium, was used for internal safety communications, mainly top-down and one-way communications that required very little interaction from the employee. The objective was to raise awareness and educate, the unintended consequence was the reinforcement of the parent-child relationship between the employer and employee.
Less is more
Often in desperation, organisations send out stuff (SOS) to grab their employees’ attention. Over time the volume increases, more stuff is sent out, attempting to cut through the clutter and competing for employees’ attention. Internal communication campaigns start to become the corporate version of The Cola Wars. This becomes counterproductive when most employees prefer chatting around the water cooler to drinking the ‘Kool-Aid’
Recognising that the medium used has a substantial impact on the desired response doesn’t mean by taking a scatter gun approach and using every channel available to widen the reach and appeal your communications are more effective; effectiveness comes from a more intelligent, targeted approach where the medium you use requires careful consideration of both the content and the context in which it is being used.
Change is constant
There have been many structural, organisational and regulatory changes within the rail industry over the past century but Network Rail’s chief executive Mark Carne believes that there still exists “what many would describe as a macho culture within the company.”
The psychological contract between employer and employee is changing, employees are demanding increased levels of trust and transparency from their employer. The want to have a voice and have adult-adult conversations, conversations that shift the culture.
The effective use of the medium of communication will play a significant role in facilitating these conversations and shifting the culture. Network Rail’s recent campaign about live saving rules has started to illustrate that shift.
The use of video in this campaign is far ‘cooler’ than traditional use of video, providing substantial stimulus and requiring much more active participation on the part of viewer to determine meaning. Using everyday language it reduces the tension of status, grounding the message at a human level, regardless of status. It highlights the human condition – we are all fallible and vulnerable but empowers the viewer to make the right choice and comply with the rules.
Network Rail has taken a leadership role by making their campaign material freely available to other organisations that have similar hazards across all industries. This act will help build external trust and internal pride, changing conversations and shifting cultures around safety.
Time will tell how successful Network Rail’s campaign will be internally but the evaluation of its success will go beyond improvements to safety performance. The wider consequence of changing the conversation and shifting the culture will be a living demonstration that ‘the medium is the message’.
Sean Trainor championed behavioural safety in the early 1990s in the nuclear industry as a manufacturing plant manager which led to 90 per cent improvements in safety performance in one year while achieving record levels of productivity. An epiphany moment that led to him specialising in employee engagement and change communications. He has led on high-profile communications for safety critical organisations including BNFL, Network Rail, British Gas and Balfour Beatty over the past 15 years. He’s the founder of Safe Places To Work, a social enterprise to promote safe cultures as lead indicators of sustainable business performance.
The Safety Conversation with SHP (previously the Safety and Health Podcast) aims to bring you the latest news, insights and legislation updates in the form of interviews, discussions and panel debates from leading figures within the profession.
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