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Creating a Culture of Safety
What is a safety culture and how can it help your business? Safety culture is the sum total of all the efforts undertaken by organization members with the goal of improving the workplace every day. Creating a safety culture is about more than eliminating hazards and putting safety procedures in place. It’s about working with people to change their attitudes, behaviors and thoughts, and improve their situational awareness.
Safety culture is the sum total of all the efforts undertaken by organization members with the goal of improving the workplace every day.
A culture of safety starts at the top with company leaders, who are charged with appointing health and safety officers, and setting the tone for the safety vision of the entire organization. This includes conveying the relevance of safety at company-wide meetings and occasionally gauging employees’ perceptions of safety through impromptu polls, surveys, or focus groups.
According to workplace safety researcher Dr. William Selkirk, more than 90% of all workplace injuries are rooted in employees’ attitude, behavior, and culture, rather than dangerous working conditions or unsafe circumstances. As a result, safety needs to start during the hiring process by putting in place screening tools that can help you identify candidates that are likely to take safety seriously. Once employees are hired, proper training is key to ensuring that they are prepared to perform their responsibilities in a way that will protect them and their coworkers from injury or illness.
Roles and Responsibilities
AA culture of safety is created when the collective attitudes of management, supervisors, and employees places priority on the value of workplace safety. In most organizations, the responsibility for safety is spread across a variety of people and/or departments. Ensuring these efforts are coordinated is key to effective implementation, and defining roles and responsibilities of each party is a good way to set expectations and measure performance.
Facility Management Team
In most organizations, the facility management team is responsible for establishing responsibilities and accountability for safety throughout all levels of the company. In addition, the team should create annual health and safety benchmarks and assign responsibility for their achievement throughout the organization to personnel such as coordinators, supervisors, and area managers.
Supervisors
Within the context of a safety culture, the role of the Supervisor is to communicate and maintain job-related safety protocols, and to act as a role model for employees. This might mean ensuring that safety devices and personal protective equipment (PPE) are regularly used by employees, and that safety inspections and weekly safety briefings are held according to schedule.
In addition, Supervisors are responsible for:
• Ensuring that employees under their direction receive job-specific health and safety training and are aware of any workplace hazards
• Promptly reporting all injuries
• Reporting safety violations
• Proactively investigating and addressing any hazardous conditions brought to his or her attention by employees
Health And Safety Manager
The health and safety manager’s job is to apprise management of safety and health requirements, oversee training and maintain all employee health and safety records. In addition, the health and safety manager should monitor the health and safety performance of the organization to ensure that it conforms with established benchmarks and continuously evaluate the risk of injury to increase regulatory compliance.
The Role Of Employees
Employees play a crucial role in workplace safety. They actively participate in and contribute to the creation of a safe and healthy work environment, fulfilling a number of responsibilities including:
• Internalizing the health and safety rules that they agreed to
• Accepting personal responsibility for a safer workplace
• Helping the safety team and coordinator with safety suggestions
• Reporting unsafe conditions, as well as accidents and injuries, to supervisors
For all of this to work, employees, managers, and supervisors must be held accountable for violations of the health and safety protocol. Factors like positive reinforcement, incentive programs, and/or disciplinary action programs can ensure accountability at all levels of a safety culture.
