DALE SYROTA

There are many reasons why one might want to change their company culture. Many researchers have said that the cost of rehiring for a position is one and a half times their annual salary, what with training, paperwork, lost production and all the other non-productive time attributed to turnover. So if you are throwing a few hundred thousand or perhaps even millions out the door each year, consider hiring me to stop the bleed. Just kidding, well not really!

If you don’t want to hire me then perhaps you might consider investing in a green hat or green hand new employee mastery program. I can recall when I was putting four to five people through a values orientation every Monday. Yes, as the safety guy I had the honor to bring these new people on strength. Since the introduction of our green hat program our turnover has been steadily decreasing. I now may have one new employee every two to three weeks. That is a reduction of 234 to 14 per year.

If you are working out the numbers and using say $60K as a wage then that is $19.8M in improved productivity. Who wouldn't want to improve their cost by 20 million a year? You might say, that it is a rhetorical question but I put this to you; a company that establishes the right kind training when bringing on new employees will save that and more. With improved moral from employees, better quality and all the customer related issues that that encompasses, the new ideas flowing from these employees, the tribal knowledge committed to paper so you can gain change impact, etc., all from employees that have mastered their work, understand their purpose within the company and have the autonomy to make a difference, you can probably add another zero to the $20M for $200M in overall improvement.

So what does a green hat program look like? As I said it all starts with me. I spend most of the first day with them looking at value. I teach them all about our division of the company and in particular about our site. As an educator and manager I understand the apprehension that comes from the first day and the first learning class. To ease that tension I tell them that they need to know only four things from my day of training; a prohibition against cell phone use including hands free when driving, a requirement to wear seatbelts driving or riding, a requirement to report and injury immediately to their supervisor, and that they must not change the accident site in any way; easy-peasy, no stress.

Using advanced psychological training and training methods, I teach new employees a system for assessing any work area for hazards before entering it, how to change their state of mind when performing a work assessment when observing other employees performing a task, how to assess risk qualitatively and quantitatively, and how they learn. These lessons are expanded upon in further training.

Green hands (hats) then embark on learning and mastering several skills over the coming months. We take the materials they touched on in orientation and practice and eventually are able to break down tasks into steps, key points, reasons why, related hazards, and the risk value of those hazards. They can perform behavioural based safety assessments observing others for safe and at risk behaviours. They learn a process where they can take observed deficiencies, assess them for improvement potential and then complete process improvements for mitigation or elimination of the risk.

In other words, they master how to make overall work-methods WORK, rather than a series of particular tasks. They may learn to the standard operating procedures to say, move materials, but do so with an understanding of how to make the process work safely, with the requisite quality, and in a way that is also efficient.

When they do complete their green at training they get a T-shirt, a certificate and the coveted company hardhat. This shows that they have met the basic skills necessary to be trusted and are able to look out for others. They have competency in the same skills as their red hat peers (red is our company colour).

Those of you who have been following me know that I believe we need to engage every employee every day. They become engaged with they have the skills and the mastery to perform work safely, the autonomy to do the work without constant supervision as they are trusted, and have a purpose, to help others be safe, productive, and to produce good quality work. A green hand/hat new employee program goes a long way to making employee engagement a reality.

What’s in the future? How about a green hand mentorship program where graduated green hats become new employee mentors? I see even further where your green hat certified mentors after taking TWI Job Instruction Training become green hand instructors. It is kind of like how Toyota created the Toyota way. Food for thought!

Isn't life grand?

If you want to get in touch with me, drop me a line at my contact page at http://dalesyrota.ca/. I do culture change. I ascribe to the thinking of IBM's CEO, Lou Gerstner, who said, "In the end, management doesn't change culture. Management invites the workforce itself to change the culture."

Dale Syrota is just a regular guy that enjoys work that brings out his creative soul.

He is still working but looking to move to warmer climates. He wants to make work WORK. His mission is to achieve individual and business success by propagating mastery, autonomy, and purpose as a vehicle to engage every employee every day and to enlist the psychology of the mind to help individuals self-improve at work and at home. Check out his http://dalesyrota.ca/ website.