Creating a Culture of Caring During National Safety Month

Every day, I see incidents and injuries around me waiting to happen. Maybe I’m clairvoyant. Or perhaps I have a heightened sense of awareness because I lead the North American Safety team for a global organization.

But I’ll let you in on a little secret: it’s really not that complicated to improve safety. It’s the simple things we do every day that can prevent injuries from happening. June is National Safety Month and the perfect time to focus on safety at home, at work and everywhere in between.

Recently, one of my safety colleagues shared a story about safety at home. Her little boy spilled his drink on the kitchen floor when no one was looking. Instead of cleaning it up, he placed a caution sign on the floor giving fair warning to the rest of the family. Nice idea, but the real answer should have been to clean up his spill before he ran outside to play. That was an injury waiting to happen.

Our managers conduct safety talks every day at work, but that morning, his mom had her first safety talk of the day at home. She reminded him that it’s his job to keep everyone around him safe, and that responsibility stays with you everywhere you go.

At work, especially for our operations teams who work on college campuses, in school buildings, hospital and corporate offices, we are committed to keeping our employees and customers safe. We know that one of the best ways to prevent slips, trips and falls is to clean up spills when they happen. It’s simple—but safety takes time and it’s easy to skip a step and put others at risk.

Our focus on safety extends into the communities where we live and work. Every day, we have the opportunity to protect and save lives. Let’s use the spill example. If you are in a public space, like a store or a restaurant, and there is a spill, your first instinct should be to secure the area and get help to clean it up. Shouldn’t you try to keep everyone around you safe, even if it’s not your spill?

What we’re really talking about is creating a culture of caring where each of us takes on the responsibility for keeping everyone around us safe.  Most people are mindful of their own safety. It’s also natural to want to keep those you love safe. But shouldn’t we take that one step further and try to keep as many people as safe as possible? What if we raise the next generation to think that way? Imagine the ripple effect we could have. That’s a great goal to have for National Safety Month and beyond.

At Sodexo, we are a people-centered organization. Our mission is to improve Quality of Life for the people we serve: our employees, customers and clients.  By creating a culture of caring in our organization, and taking responsibility for everyone around us, we will reach our goal of Zero Harm. It’s that simple.

As a global organization, Sodexo provides services in 80 countries. The best part about creating a safety culture is that it applies to every country, culture and language. Caring for people is a passion that crosses all boundaries and unites us around the world.

What are you doing during National Safety Month and year round to create a safety culture?

Mårten Stenfors is Head of Safety for Sodexo North America where he is responsible for leading the Quality Assurance, Food Safety and Environment, Health and Safety teams to drive a safe environment for Sodexo employees and clients. Sodexo is the 18th largest employer in the world and the leader in delivering integrated facilities management, foodservice operations and recognition programs in 80 countries. Sodexo’s 420,000 employees provide more than 100 unique services that improve performance for client partners and improve Quality of Life for 75 million consumers every day.