Many professionals have learned about proper management techniques including avoiding negative silo management. What is silo management? One way to look at this often poor management style is when multiple departments in an organization work on their own and fail to work together. For example, an organization may have a CEO with three or four executive directors reporting directly to the CEO. If these directors don’t like each other or disrespect the work each department does, it leads to all the employees working in their own department “silo.” If the CEO fails to address this lack of cooperation, it affects the performance of the entire organization including a negative impact on the corporate safety culture.

How does poor silo management affect safety? A great way to avoid silo management is to work together and collaborate on safety as part of your company safety culture. Employees should be aware of the safety culture and understand how they can contribute as an individual as well as within the team. Each company should identify regular safety and health activities that promote a team approach.  Training is a perfect way to address a collaborative approach to protect workers from workplace hazards. Safety hazards often cross department “boundaries” and responsibilities so addressing the commonalities within safety, and training to prevent the concerns, can bring departments and employees together. Another way to work together is to have representatives from all departments conduct safety inspections together. Workers and supervisors from one department may see safety issues and unsafe work practices that personnel with that department may take for granted.