It's Workplace Safety Month - How Important Is Safety in Your Culture?

Posted July 6, 2019

When a company prioritizes safety in its culture, employees don't just work safely, they embrace it and push for change when it is needed. Indifference or inaction is taboo in these organizations, and the pressure to embrace safety comes from everyone throughout the company.

When a company does not have safety ingrained in its culture, employees avoid reporting incidents and dangerous conditions because they worry about reprisal or think reporting won't bring about change.

Consider the following key aspects of a strong safety culture.

Strong Measuring Systems

The way safety is assessed can essentially change how safety is managed, and how safety is managed is a main contributor the culture of safety.

One crucial step to incorporating safety into a company's culture is to put a solid emphasis on how safety is assessed. Incident rate is a popular and necessary statistic, but it ought to be just one of many data points. A comprehensive safety assessment system should focus on what workers are doing to keep accidents from happening. When there is data on what people are doing to avoid accidents, steps can be taken to support a proactive approach to safety.

A comprehensive statistical approach also ensures that safety is not only top of mind when an incident takes place, as tracking statistics puts safety on par with other business objectives.

Change-Focused Accountability

Sadly, accountability too frequently is associated with blame and negative repercussions. In some strong safety cultures, accountability is associated with something else: positive change.

Change-focused accountability still acknowledges incidents and any harm they cause, but it also recognizes adjustments that should be made, and assigns responsibility for making the needed modifications. This kind of accountability targets improvements, better safety habits and making the work environment less dangerous.

Trust

Superb safety cultures are largely defined by trust because it facilitates honest discussions that must be had on what is working, what isn't and what must change. Missteps are chances to learn, but employees must believe that telling management about issues won't lead to punishment.

Trust in any organization must start at the top. When leaders establish clear expectations, offer helpful feedback, recognize good work, try to understand issues as opposed to placing blaming, listen, follow through on suggestions and ask for feedback, they can build and maintain trust with employees.

Extra Effort

Some people consider safety to be a compliance issue; however, a culture of safety encourages effort beyond basic compliance.

When safety has been ingrained into a company's culture, people don't just follow best practices and comply with guidelines. They seek out hazards, report issues, talk to each other about risky behavior, volunteer ideas and admit when mistakes are made.

Let Us Support Safety at Your Company

At Ambassador Personnel, we work hand-in-glove with our clients to ensure our contract employees are working as safely as possible. Please contact our full-service staffing firm today to find out how we can support safety in your organization.