Synopsis:

When Nestlé in Australia took the bold step to stop mobile phone use while driving, to address driver distraction, it expected some resistance. It got the opposite, receiving virtually unanimous support across all levels of the organisation and employees who drive for work feeling the company values their safety.

Key Outcomes

  • Nestlé adopted new approach to go above and beyond legal requirements and cares for its people.
  • Road safety research and statistics are helpful to validate an intended approach and can be leveraged to promote buy-in and engagement
  • Drivers respond positively to road safety measures when the motivation is to make drivers safer, and when they understand how changes will achieve that outcome
  • Employees who drive for work are not immune to the risks faced by the general driving population, and the onus is on employers to manage workplace risks
  • Having a well-thought out, staged implementation period that gives everyone time to adjust behaviour promotes high compliance with a new policy
  • When organisation leadership, particularly those most impacted, understand the rationale for change and publicly support measures, they become a powerful force for change
  • Similarly, encouraging employees to apply road safety evidence to their own circumstance and understand the motivation and how it relates to their performance creates lasting change
  • Education, based on solid reasoning for a new road safety policy and sharing that reasoning across the organisation, is more effective than punishment in encouraging compliance.