Safety Volunteer – A Catalyst for Change

From Leadership to Frontline Staff: Why Safety Volunteers Are Needed

Building a sustainable culture of safe behavior cannot be limited to top and middle management. Any transformation requires support directly on the shop floor. In her presentation, Oksana Zalevskaya, Head of the Integrated HSE System at Severstal, examines the practice of implementing the institution of safety volunteers — a tool that engages blue-collar workers in achieving the strategic goal of zero injuries.

A safety volunteer is an employee who voluntarily and without remuneration participates in improving working conditions. The key value of this approach lies in the worker's genuine intolerance for violations and readiness to stop unsafe acts. The speaker emphasizes that the initiative became a logical continuation of the leadership competency development program: when managers began demonstrating a role model of safe behavior, a need arose for change agents within the work crews themselves.

Selection Principles: Rejecting Quotas and Formalism

One of the main mistakes when implementing such initiatives is chasing quantitative targets. In this case study, the company deliberately abandoned plans for a specific number of volunteers per workshop. Artificially forming a core group leads to formalism and demotivates both managers and the workers themselves.

• Voluntariness as an absolute priority. The candidate must express their own desire to participate in the process. Coercion ("dragging by the collar") is strictly prohibited.
• Proactivity markers. Attention is paid to those who propose ideas for improving working conditions, act as mentors for newcomers, and are not afraid to stop colleagues' unsafe work.
• Strict filter for violations. An employee who has violated Life-Saving Rules (LSR) within a calendar year cannot become a volunteer. This ensures the activist's moral right to demand compliance with the rules from others.

Local Interaction: The Role of the Foreman and Workshop Manager

The effectiveness of a volunteer's work directly depends on the support of line managers. The speaker details the algorithm for building this partnership. The initial verification of a candidate is conducted by the foreman, who knows the climate in the crew best. Then, the workshop manager discusses the volunteer's strengths and skills with them to select the most suitable tasks.

The most important principle of task setting is short-term focus and a high probability of successful completion. The volunteer should quickly see the results of their efforts and receive public gratitude at a team meeting. This creates positive reinforcement and protects the activist from potential negativity from toxic colleagues who might be hostile to the initiative. Regular meetings (once a week) help to promptly remove administrative barriers that the worker themselves lacks the authority to overcome.

Non-Financial Motivation and Competency Development

Abandoning strict KPIs and evaluation sheets helped avoid bureaucratizing the process. Instead, the motivation system is built on the professional and personal development of the activists.

• Targeted training on demand. Volunteers themselves form the request for knowledge: from fatal risk assessment methods (e.g., "bow-tie") to public speaking skills and working in new IT systems.
• Specialized events. Organizing reference visits to other company facilities, participating in cross-functional audits, and joint leadership walkarounds with top management broaden the workers' horizons.
• Direct dialogue with management. Quarterly informal meetings with department directors and participation in demo days show volunteers the real significance of their work for the company.

What you will learn from this webinar:

• How to build effective interaction between a safety volunteer, foreman, and workshop manager?
• What markers to use to identify potential safety leaders among workers?
• How to set tasks for volunteers to avoid demotivating them at the first difficulties?
• How to protect proactive employees from negative attitudes from the conservative part of the team?
• Which non-financial motivation tools work best to retain volunteers' interest?