Creating a Sustainable Safety Culture

Part 1. Management

OSHA defines a safety culture as “shared beliefs, practices, and attitudes that exist at an establishment. Culture is the atmosphere created by those beliefs, attitudes, etc., which shape behavior.” An organization’s safety culture is attributed to factors such as:

1. Management and employee norms, assumptions and beliefs;
2. Management and employee attitudes;
3. Values, myths, stories;
4. Policies and procedures;
5. Supervisor priorities, responsibilities and accountability;
6. Production and bottom line pressures vs. quality issues;
7. Actions or lack of action to correct unsafe behaviors;
8. Employee training and motivation; and
9. Employee involvement or “buy-in.”

In a strong safety culture, everyone is devoted to safety excellence and relentlessly pursues it on a daily basis; employees go beyond “the call of duty” to identify and correct hazards. Correcting hazards as quickly as possible and maintaining good communications around hazards creates a safer workplace and increases employees’ engagement. Frontline employees who believe management takes care of hazards are more willing to participate fully in safety initiatives.

For example, in a strong safety culture any employee would feel comfortable walking up to the plant manager or CEO and reminding him or her to put on their safety glasses. This type of behavior would be valued by the organization and rewarded. Likewise coworkers routinely look out for one another and point out unsafe behaviors to each other.

An effective corporate environmental health and safety program requires 100% leadership and commitment from top management. Management leadership provides the motivating force and the resources for organizing and controlling activities within an organization. Worker safety and health needs to be regarded as paramount to its operations. Concern for every aspect of the safety and health of all workers throughout the facility needs to be demonstrated.

Recommended actions for management leadership include:

1. Visible management involvement;
2. Assigning and communicating responsibility, authority and resources to responsible parties and holding those parties accountable;
3. Management needs to ensure that workers are encouraged to report hazards, symptoms, injuries and illnesses, and that there are no programs or policies which discourage this reporting;
4. Safety is viewed as an investment, not a cost.

Visible Leadership

Successful managers and safety leaders use a variety of approaches that visibly involve them in the safety and health protection of their workers.

Some methods include:

• Getting out where you can be seen, informally or through formal inspections. Spending more time on the shop floors talking to operators and getting their feedback.
• Being accessible.
• Communicating and keeping lines of communications open with employees.
• Being an example, by knowing and following the rules employees are expected to follow.
• Being involved by participating on the workplace Safety and Health Committee.

The next article will discuss employee aspects of creating a sustainable safety culture.