A positive safety culture requires business leaders to promote safety measures regularly. Understanding how to foster a sustainable safety culture is integral for the health and wellness of employees.
Different jobs and industries have different levels of risk, and thus different safety needs. Regardless, an involved safety culture can improve workplace health no matter the industry. On the other hand, ignoring the safety needs of the business can have serious ramifications.
How is a Safety Culture Defined?
Simply put, safety culture is the way that safety is managed in a workspace. It encompasses the attitudes and perceptions around safety that are shared by the majority of employees in a company.
A positive safety culture is one where informed efforts are made to reduce safety risks. The goal is to keep all employees as safe as possible, thereby reducing costly incidents and accidents.
Business leaders should lead the organisation in encouraging a positive safety culture by setting an example and reinforcing safe behaviours.
How To Build a Safety Culture that Lasts
Business leaders are responsible for showing employees which actions will be punished or rewarded with regards to safety.
Implementing the following tips could improve the safety culture, and thus better the health and safety practices in your organisation.
1. Implement a central reporting channel
Management should encourage all employees to use a reporting channel. This channel should be used to report on all events, observations and incidents that are safety-related. It should be easy to access and use so that employees won’t hesitate to report incidents.
2. Enable transparent communications
If employees are not on the same page, there is room for error. Simply having good intentions, and thinking about safety, is not enough.
Transparent communication about best practices and regulations that employees need to adhere to is crucial. Whether this is through detailed briefings or safety posters, it is vital that employees know how to comply with safety regulations. After all, when it comes to safety, over-communication is far better than confusion.
3. Educate employees on the company’s ideal safety culture
Management should ensure that employees understand the ideal safety culture at the business.
This could include educating them on various safety policies and providing training on how to spot potential hazards.
4. Recognise people who are proactive
It’s important to recognise employees who uphold the ideal safety culture in your organisation. This provides motivation to other employees to work toward a positive culture.
5. Share reports with the entire organisation
Keeping in line with transparent communication, share safety reports with everyone in the organisation - not just the managers or leaders.
Knowing the number of incidents reported per week or month helps to constantly enforce the importance of safety. It can also help employees to celebrate successes or learn from their failures.
Final Thoughts
Building a safety culture is critical for all types of organisations - especially for those where employees work in high-risk environments. A strong safety culture helps keep workers safe by reducing incidents and accidents and mitigating risk.
Business leaders should implement the above tips to lead the company in creating a positive safety culture.
If your organisation is looking for a tool to involve all employees in safety reporting for better decision-making on workplace and safety strategies, have a look at the Falcony Platform. It enables your staff to participate in creating clarity on non-conformities, give feedback, ideas and input for the business, as well as preventing and decreasing the amount of friction in cross-team communications, while gathering actionable data in the process.
And if you want to learn more about safety metrics and KPIs, check out our FREE guide:
We are building the world's first operational involvement platform. Our mission is to make the process of finding, sharing, fixing and learning from issues and observations as easy as thinking about them and as rewarding as being remembered for them.
By doing this, we are making work more meaningful for all parties involved.
More information at falcony.io.
