Reference no: EM133207344

Case: Milliken & Company, founded in 1865, designs, manufactures, and markets chemicals, floor coverings, protective fabrics, and textiles. The company has about 7,000 employees in more than 39 facilities around the world. The privately owned Milliken has received widespread recognition for the quality of its innovative products, for its high employee engagement, and for its world-class employee engagement-based occupational safety program; it's also the only company to consistently rank as "ethical company" for 15 years running. A survey of Milliken's employees found an 80% positive engagement level, based on questions concerning employees' commitment, pride in company, and empowerment efforts. Its extraordinarily low workplace illness and injury rates mean it consistently rates as one of the safest companies in which to work.

Involvement-Based Employee Engagement

The centerpiece of Milliken's safety process is its involvement-based employee engagement program. For example, employees staff the safety steering and safety subcommittee system, submit "opportunity for improvement" suggestions weekly, review each of these suggestions, and provide feedback on every suggestion. The safety process depends on cascading goals deriving from federal, state, and Milliken- based safety guidelines. These goals are translated through weekly meetings into specific metrics (for instance, "accidents per employee hour worked") to be achieved by each plant's subcommittees. Each safety subcommittee then performs weekly audits, to ensure compliance and to ensure the plant's safety activities are continuously improved.

The Milliken safety program quantifies each employee's involvement, for instance, in terms of serving on safety subcommittees, being a trainer or safety subject matter expert, or conducting safety audits. Also, to help win engagement, the program empowers employees, for instance, by training each to do his or her "safety job"(such as being knowledgeable about OSHA safety regulations). employees are also trained to give and receive peer-to-peer safety comment. Each is authorized to act on what he or she observes by providing "constructive feedback" or "appreciative feedback" when observing another employee doing something safely (or not). Each employee is also trained to use Milliken's safety tracking mechanism. This tool helps employees make sure that safety suggestions, safety audit findings or other safety agenda items are tracked and finalized, by giving each item a number, date, and the name of the responsible Milliken employee.

Members of each plant's employee safety steering committee investigate all safety incidents to help discover the causes. Milliken recognizes employees' safety efforts in formal celebratory events throughout the year, such as having "cheerleaders" provide safety cheers as engineers enter the plant.

Question:

Can you describe how one company uses employee engagement to improve workplace safety? What are the roles of managers in driving a safety culture while ensuring performance objectives are met?