Dispensary management leadership is a demonstrated commitment at the highest levels of a cannabis dispensary to safety and health. It means that business owners, executives, managers, and supervisors make safety and health a core organizational value, establish goals, provide resources, and set a good example.
Because dispensary managers and workers take their cues from leadership, all leaders throughout an organization must show a visible commitment to safety and health.
How Do You Do It?
You can show cannabis dispensary management leadership by delivering a safety and health message. The main point of this message is to communicate a high-level commitment to safety and health training, but including additional information on safety and health topics that are particularly relevant to your workplace may help to make this message more personal.
The following are a few suggestions and resources to get you started. You can select one of these activities or choose a different activity to show management leadership in your cannabis dispensary.
1) Send an Email Blast: Kick off the beginning of the work week by sending an email blast with a key message about your commitment to safety and health. Use email, or a series of emails, to share why safety is important to you; show how injury and illness prevention is tied to organizational goals and values; provide recognition for positive outcomes from existing safety and health strategies, or highlight upcoming investments in safety and health.
You could also include a different health and safety message each day of the week. For example, one day’s email could feature your upcoming cannabis dispensary training activities, another day could highlight safety resources available at your worksite (ex. safety training, job hazard analysis forms, etc.), and the last day could summarize how you will use what you learned during the week to establish or improve your safety and health program.
2) Create a Video: Record an interview with the head of the cannabis dispensary talking about why safety is important to them and/or demonstrating how to properly operate equipment, use personal protective equipment, or conduct a task safely in your workplace. You could also invite workers to interview the boss about his or her commitment to safety. Have senior managers host a screening for all workers and show the video during new worker orientation. A simple video shot on any smartphone should suffice.
3) Write a Company Newsletter Column or Article: Start a senior manager column in your dispensary’s newsletter to reiterate your commitment to safety in the workplace. This column could feature organizational goals for safety and health; recognize workers for their safety and health efforts and participation, or report the outcomes of analysis and action taken to address identified concerns or hazards.
4) Post a visible message: If your workers don’t have access to computers or email, display flyers or posters in break rooms, restrooms, and other common areas to deliver your safety message. You can use graphics along with short statements from senior dispensary management to highlight safety and health goals and strategies and demonstrate that worker safety and health are an organizational priority.
How Do You Make It Effective?
Make it High-Level: Have the highest-level cannabis dispensary executive/leader/manager available to deliver the message.- Make it Personal: Communicate the safety and health best practices senior managers have used first-hand, in the first person, or have them tell a story about how safety (or a lack of good hazard controls) has affected them personally, and why it’s so important to them.
- Make it Available: Share messages with your workers through your typical communication channels (ex. posters, flyers, email, intranet site, YouTube, and social media).
- Make it Resonate: Send daily, weekly, or monthly email blasts or texts to your workers with a seasonal safety and health message.
Show Your Commitment to Safety & Health
Remember to share your commitment to a safe and healthy workplace with all involved in your dispensary operations, including workers, contractors, customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders. Here are a few ways to do that:
- Get feedback on your messages and tailor them as appropriate; what works with one crew might not work for the whole organization.
- Use what you learn during safety and health training to create and articulate new – and update existing – safety goals.
- Tell other stakeholders how you communicate your commitment to safety, and share any outcomes of your communications.
- Share the video or messages you created with customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders at local trade or professional meetings, sales expos, and company events.
- Reiterate your safety and health message in public places such as your website, contracts, sales brochures, and annual report.
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