Comprehensive Assessment: How to Build a Safety Culture?

A quality Safety Culture is an elusive and difficult goal to achieve for any company.  It seems that within our industry there is much discussion on how to arrive at this high quality level of safety management.  I am in full agreement that management’s safety knowledge and commitment are the most important components in developing a strong Safety Culture.  Also, this knowledge and commitment needs to be properly and thoroughly communicated to the employees.  Below is a safety meeting which I have used for years in order to educate on “developing safety culture in the field”.  In order to get an audience’s attention one must communicate first with the heart and then with facts.  The safety meeting which follows, I feel, does just that.

SAFETY MEETING:   THE RIGHT ATTITUDE TOWARD SAFETY

I would like to ask you two questions: How would you feel if one of your family members became injured and how do you think your family members would feel/react if you were injured on the job site?

This Safety Meeting is intended to discuss:

• Recognizing the need to take safety seriously;
• Knowing how to demonstrate the right attitude towards safety.

• Take Safety Seriously: Every employee must take safety seriously in order to:

• • Avoid incidents that could cause fire, explosions, chemical spills, and damage to equipment.
  • Avoid incident related injuries:

Injuries hurt and result in pain, they also may involve long term rehabilitation possibly including physical therapy, in addition there is a major financial cost involved with injury as workers compensation or maintenance pay will be far lower pay than a regular salary.

Also, Injuries on the job affect the entire family from a financial standpoint and depending on the nature of the injury will affect how the injured worker interacts with family members. Serious injuries often result in divorce because so much has changed in the relationship.

• • Comply with OSHA safety and health regulations
  • Comply with Company rules, policies, and procedures

• How many of you have had an injury occur to a fellow worker while you were working on the job? 

Discuss.  In my last 10 years of working one of my major responsibilities was bringing injured employees to the occupational physician.  I have seen what an injury can do to a person’s attitude and emotions.  It is a very tough experience to work with injured employees.  You never get used to the pain and loss.

• An employee with a positive safety attitude makes the most of company training, safety tools, and all aspects of the Safety Management System.

• Carelessness is the most common cause of workplace incidents.

Unsafe acts result when people take attitudes like those below towards safety:

• • Complacency – The hardest people to train on safety are those workers who have been working in that industry within that particular job for many years.
  • Being upset or angry
  • Fatigue-Came from boat industry, fatigue was a very real problem and was managed by safety department.
  • Recklessness-This may be screened in interview and hiring process.
  • Distractions – texting and operating equipment
  • New conditions- facility maintenance and turnarounds
• Take a positive attitude towards safety
  
  • Take personal responsibility for your safety and that of your fellow co-workers: utilize Behavioral Based Safety, the JSA process and Stop Work Authority to accomplish this task.
  • Follow every step in every job every time.
  • Know and follow company safety policies and procedures.
  • Use required PPE.
  • Give work your full attention.
  • Conduct a Job Safety Analysis during the pre job meeting before each work process.
  • Know the location of wash stations and other safety equipment.
  • No horse play when on the clock
• Look for Opportunities to Improve Workplace Safety:
  • Support and work with the company’s Safety Department
  • Follow all company safety policies and procedures, even if you don’t agree with them all (talk with a safety representative as soon as you can for those procedures with which you disagree  to work towards a common solution).
  • Be a champion of safety and look for ways to grow and learn how to work safer, consistently and constantly.
  • Show initiative and independently discover unsafe conditions or situations and correct them with the cooperation of your supervisor and the Safety Department.
  • Take your positive safety attitude with you off the job.  Positive attitudes are infectious.  Use PPE at home.  (if you see a neighbor using a chain saw without safety glasses, offer them the PPE.)
• Here is a way to maintain the right perspective on Safety: It is called the, “My Reasons for working safely” Poster:

I have seen this done at various companies and it is a great way to take safety seriously.  At your locker at work or at home find a bulletin board to use for this safety practice.  Place a Banner at the top of the bulletin board which says, “My Reasons for Working Safely”.  Put pictures of your kids, and wife under the banner on the bulletin board.  Then every morning when you are going to start work look at your Reasons for Working Safely and this will keep your attitude and priorities on track.

Learn how to overcome safety challenges with a safety management software

• Safety Culture:

A good determination of the quality of a company’s safety culture is how safe the employees are working when no one is watching them work.  That is the definition of that company’s safety culture.  Everyone is responsible to continuously learn and grow in their skills for hazard-recognition, evaluation and control.  Our goal for our safety culture is one of interdependence where we not only watch out for ourselves but for our fellow workers and friends around us.  The best way to take safety serious is to continue to grow and mature in how we all manage hazards in our work areas.

*The author’s views and opinions are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views and opinions of 360factors.

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