9 STEPS TO A SUCCESSFUL SAFETY CULTURE AT YOUR WORKPLACE

>>>> Definition of ‘safety culture’;

>>>> The set of steps needed to create a ‘safety culture’ at workplace;

>>>> Roles of the management team & committee in creating a safety culture;

What is safety culture? One way to put it; it's the way things are done around here. It's the set of values that management and the workforce use to determine how they act at work. Safety should not be viewed or stated simply as a priority. The priorities of a company can change over time, and even on short notice, but values do not. To say that safety is a priority means that it will change based on the needs or urgency of the moment and will not always be on the top of your priority list. Following are steps safety managers can take to make safety a greater value to management and to front line employees:

• STEP 1 - View and present safety as a continuous process instead of a compliance requirement;

• STEP 2 - Look at near-misses or accidents as indicators of a series of connected events that led to the incident, not as a one-time or isolated event;

• STEP 3 - Integrate safety activities into the safety system, not announce them as a new priority that appears to workers as yet another add-on, flavor-of-the-month
initiative;

• STEP 4 - Make the effort to encourage workers to improve safety performance; watch for improvements and recognize them;

• STEP 5 - Get employees involved in the safety decision-making process instead of dictating new policies and priorities;

• STEP 6 - When near-misses or accidents occur, look first at why the safety management system failed instead of looking to place blame. Don't just look at what went wrong, but get into the habit of thinking about the process of recognizing the hazard and finding a way to control the hazard;

• STEP 7 - Look at accident investigations as action planning, not fault-finding missions;

• STEP 8 - When instituting a new control, explain to affected workers why they are being asked to change what they normally do, and what success will look like;

• STEP 9 - Identify all of the "hidden" costs of workplace injuries and illnesses, such as lost workdays, workers' compensation, and replacing a worker, and measure them over time. If you can measure it, you can manage it. Make the case to management that these costs can be managed and reduced with a stronger commitment to safety. Real change in safety performance will come about with a change in the safety culture of an organization. Think about the change in the use of seat belts from 30 years ago to now.

What got people to put them on without even thinking about them? Gory accidents? Probably not. It was leadership backing up a change in behavior, and then repetitive education, enforcement, and encouragement. Change in culture requires consistent leadership and repetition. A systematic change in the values of the target audience is needed, not a new priority that comes and goes with funding priorities. In addition, the company must ensure that an effective management system is existed and implemented at various levels.

An effective management system should be able to recognize record, report and reward all levels of employee involvement in order to achieve a sustainable safety culture. The best systems will track involvement at the employee level, as well as at the crew and department levels. Costs for implementing and administrating a program need not be expensive and can actually serve as a means to strict budgetary control. Another factor to be considered is the employees’involvement in creating a safety culture.

Together with a professionally conducted survey, a safety culture management system provides tailored, high-impact platform any company can use to attain greater levels of employee engagement. The extent that employees are fully engaged in the process of safety, health and environment, companies expect enhanced performance, quality and profits. Fully engaged corkers practice systems-thinking, act as proprietors and “perform in the storm” as required. To develop a world class safety culture, company must implement a management system that is bottom-up, with top-down controls, encouraging communication, ideas and initiative at every level of the organization.

Together, we can work towards creating a safety culture,...