John Henle, Safety Consultant at Bailey Safety says he knows safety starts with yourself. “Never give your safety away; accidents happen in a split-second,” he says.

Bailey Safety offers training and education services to help companies meet the demands of safety, compliance, and facility-specific requirements.

On any given day, John can be found performing safety program evaluations, compliance analysis, conducting safety audits, and/or developing safety management and training plans to help companies.

As an accomplished organizer with a background in safety, training, project management, supply chain management, and more—John is one who is able to see the big picture while identifying gaps and implementing the resulting initiatives to help companies improve their safety programs. He has experience in and helps companies across many industries including automotive, waste management, hospitals, institutional, petrol-chemical, utilities, and industrial.

All in all, his focus is on supporting safety through education. Keep reading to see his advice for someone starting out in safety, and what he says would be the one thing he’d change about how safety is sometimes managed with organizations.

How did you end up in your role?

I was drawn to the role as away to help people.

What’s important to be effective in your role?

Listening with a desire to understand.

What’s your advice for someone starting out in a role that supports safety in some capacity?

We are here to assist the workers to work safety. Our job is to make sure everyone goes home to their families each night. Keep that in the forefront and you will be successful.

Have you ever had an incident that changed you and how did you approach it with your role?  

Not one incident; it’s been a gradual dawning that my role is to educate people, not to police them.

What do you think everyone should know about safety? 

Safety starts with yourself. Never give your safety away; accidents happen in a split-second.

Do you have any mantra you live or work by?

Have a plan. Work your plan. Be open to new opportunities as they present themselves.

What is your superpower? 

I start from a place of respect when correcting safety errors.  I treat the workers the way I want to be treated.

If there was one thing that you could change about how safety is managed, what would it be? 

If there was one thing I could change, it would be to get away from behavior based safety that really is, “Read this and do this or else we fire you.”

How do you see safety changing in the future—or where do you think safety is headed?

Hopefully safety is moving away from a “policing state” of safety to an educational based safety environment.