Balancing Safety and Productivity as a Mid-Level Manager
It is easy to feel overwhelmed as a mid-level manager. Your boss wants you to accomplish the (seemingly) impossible. Other departments demand your time and attention. And so often those unfunded mandates come flying at you from some Corporate function you barely knew existed. And then there’s the corporate value that “Safety is our top priority” – even though most days, it feels like the only thing you hear about is poor productivity and the need to do more with less.
Yes, that’s the reality for many managers. I’ve lived it myself and it nearly got the better of me until I figured out the secret!
Here’s the truth: Safety and productivity do not need to be in conflict. Where an immediate time constraint exists, safety — as the stated top priority — must win. That is non-negotiable. However, in the broader operational rhythm of a facility, what you do to improve safety almost always improves productivity as well. The two are more interdependent than most people realize.
The Common Foundation: Engagement
The most important and obvious lever that improves both safety and productivity is employee engagement. Teams that feel heard, respected, and included in decisions pay closer attention, take more ownership, and bring forward issues before they become losses or injuries.
In fact, Gallup has published studies showing that engaged teams deliver 64% fewer safety incidents and 18% higher productivity than their less-engaged counterparts. Those aren’t small numbers — that’s the difference between a stable, high-performing operation and one constantly in firefighting mode.
Why Safety First Actually Speeds You Up
When I walk a facility, I can often predict its productivity in the first ten minutes. Not by looking at output boards, but by observing safety practices:
Is housekeeping tight or sloppy?
Are operators taking shortcuts - like not wearing their protective equipment?
Do leaders stop and coach when they see a deviation?
Are near misses logged and discussed constructively?
Is there evidence of a suggestion program that is active?
A site that tolerates small safety sloppiness inevitably tolerates small quality misses, communication breakdowns, unaddressed equipment issues, and procedural deviations. Those small misses compound — first into downtime, then into quality-rework, then into injuries. High-performing operations never separate “how we run safely” from “how we run well.”
Four Practical Moves for Mid-Level Managers
Here are four actions that consistently create lift in both safety and productivity:
1. Strengthen your daily operating rhythm
A predictable, disciplined cadence minimizes chaos.
Daily huddles, tiered escalation, frontline check-ins, and standard work for leaders prevent surprises — and surprises are the enemy of both safety and efficiency.
Consistency builds trust. Trust builds engagement. Engagement delivers results.
2. Treat your operators as experts — because they are
Frontline employees see risks and bottlenecks long before the data shows them.
Engage them in hazard identification, process mapping, and improvement discussions.
When people feel ownership, they stop working around problems and start solving them. The key tool here is your listening skill - followed by acting upon what you hear to support your team!
Most managers only implement employee ideas if they have a strong justification to do so. I come at this topic differently with a simple rule of thumb: if an operator makes a suggestion, it should be implemented unless we can think of a strong reason not to. When people see that their input is being taken seriously and acted upon, they will come with even better ideas and engagement will rise.
3. Ensure everyone knows the Goals!
Gallop survey data from Q2 —2025 suggests that less than 1 in 2 employees actually knows what is expected of them! Often this is because the goals themselves have not been cascaded meaningfully when they were rolled out. Goals must be stated in terms that each team member can relate to. Team members must be fully aware of the goals, know how they personally effect the goals on a moment-by-moment basis, and know the current level of performance against the goal. With this knowledge, each employee can pull in the correct direction - progressing both the safety and productivity metrics!
4. Eliminate the friction that causes unsafe behavior
Nobody chooses to get hurt. When you see unsafe actions, assume there is a barrier you haven’t removed yet:
A tool that’s too far away
A step that’s unclear or undocumented
Time pressure that encourages shortcuts
A training gap you didn’t realize existed
When you fix the system, behavior improves — and so do your results.
I usually think in terms of identifying what is the employee’s perceived ‘reward’ for the shortcut and then remove, or dispel the value of, the reward. Usually, the reward has to do with the perception getting something done faster or easier, will be viewed favorably by management - without really understanding that the resulting consequences could easily negate the perceived benefit. The solution: make it faster and easier to do it the right way! Both safety and productivity will win in the long run!
Leading Without the Luxury of Time
Mid-level managers rarely get “extra time” to focus on safety or culture. That’s okay. You don’t need more time — you need to integrate safety into the way work gets done. When safety becomes the mechanism for how you operate, not a separate pillar, everything becomes easier and faster.
Creating an engaged team, will increase empowerment and things will start to get done correctly without your direct involvement. This empowerment gives you more time to tell your boss about the great results your team is generating!
Final Thought
I led operations long enough, and high enough, to know the pressures will never disappear. Targets will rise. Challenges will compound. Corporate priorities will shift. But one truth never changes:
The safest operations are always the most productive - because disciplined, engaged teams win on every metric.
Your role as a mid-level leader is to build that discipline, foster that engagement, and protect that culture. When you do, safety and productivity stop competing — they start reinforcing each other, and your team becomes a place where people can do the best work of their careers.
Want to learn more about how to drive engagement, take our FREE Leadership Self-Assessment and follow the suggestions in the personalized report you will receive!
