8 SIGNS OF A GREAT SAFETY CULTURE

Many organizations want to improve their safety culture in order to reduce injury rates, save money, and increase productivity. But how does a company know when its efforts are successful? The following are the key indicators that help you determine whether your safety culture is on the road to greatness.

Number 1: Management Has Bought In.

ISO 45001:2018 – Clause 5.1 required top management shall demonstrate leadership and commitment with respect to the OH&S management system by taking overall responsibility and accountability for the prevention of work-related injury and ill health, as well as the provision of safe and healthy workplaces and activities. Therefore, Safety culture must have the full commitment of company leadership. Executives and managers must lead by example by following safety policies themselves and must adopt safety as a core organizational value. Safety efforts must be viewed as complementary to productivity and profitability goals rather than in conflict with them. Eg: Management team involved in Hazard Hunt/Observation Exercise.

Number 2: Employees Are Engagement on Safety Matters.

In an organization with strong safety culture, employees are highly engaged with safety. They don’t resent safety efforts, view safety rules as a nuisance that interferes with their work, or believe that safety is “someone else’s job”; rather, they are fully committed to making their workplace as safe as possible. Engaged employees do not hesitate to speak up if they witness unsafe conditions or actions because they know that they can raise concerns without fear of retaliation. Clause of 5.4 of ISO 45001:2018 required organization shall establish, implement and maintain a process(es) for consultation and participation of workers at all applicable levels and functions, and, where they exist, workers’ representatives, in the development, planning, implementation, performance evaluation and actions for improvement of the OH&S management system. Eg: Employee’s engagement in Quarterly, Monthly, Weekly Safety meetings, Safety Interaction and Observation and Safety share & Incident recall etc.

Number 3: Incidents Are Investigated.

Following every incident, you drill down to the root cause to determine what went wrong and how to prevent reoccurrences. An effective incident investigation program will allow you to do this. Organisations are required to act when an OH&S incident or system nonconformity is identified. In such instances, the organisation is required to take whatever action is necessary to control and correct the nonconformity, and to deal with the consequence. A key requirement is to identify the root cause of the incident or non-conformance and take appropriate action to prevent recurrence.

Number 4: Risk Assessment/ Hazard Analysis are Routine.

To protect employees from workplace hazards, you need to know what these hazards are. Job hazard analysis allows you to identify the hazards associated with the tasks your workers perform to identify appropriate protective measures. As part of risk-based thinking under the new ISO 45001:2018, organisations are required to consider their context (4.1), the relevant requirements of their relevant interested parties (4.2) and the scope defined for the OHSMS (4.3) when determining risks and opportunities. This means thinking about the internal and external issues they face, the relevant requirements of their interested parties within the defined scope of the OH&MS, and the impact this may have on systems and processes. Actions taken to address risks and opportunities should be in proportion to the potential impact of the risk and opportunity on workers’ OH&S or on the OHSMS.

Number 5: Policies and Procedures Are In Place, Accessible, And Clear.

Policies and procedures are the backbone that supports a safety culture. Safety-related policies—for example, regarding the use of PPE or prohibiting horseplay—should be clear, in writing, and specify consequences for noncompliance. Procedures (such as those for lockout/tagout or emergency shutdown) should be written in easily understandable language that describes the subject in a step-by-step manner. Employees must be familiar with safety policies and procedures they are expected to follow and must be able to review them at any time.

Number 6: An Effective Safety Training Program is in Place.

To have a strong safety culture, employees need to receive high-quality training on the company’s safety policies and procedures, hazards they may be exposed to on the job, and safe work practices for protecting themselves against these hazards. Training must be in a language and vocabulary that workers can understand, and it must be provided to all workers, including temporary workers. Make sure to document training and keep track of when refresher training is necessary.

Number 7: Goals Are Measured & All Are Held Accountable.

Safety culture cannot take hold in an organization without clearly defined goals and reliable metrics for assessing success in achieving these goals. A combination of leading and lagging indicators provides the most complete picture of an organization’s safety culture. Set challenging yet achievable safety goals and evaluate your progress towards those goals frequently, making adjustments as necessary.

Number 8: Fair and Just Culture are part of organizational behaviour. 

A Fair and Just Culture creates an atmosphere of trust in which people are encouraged for providing essential safety related information, but in which they are also clear about where the line must be drawn between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. A Fair and Just Culture has to be applied with the knowledge that: All management systems can be improved, People can and do make mistakes, People/groups at all levels may develop unhealthy/unsafe patterns of behaviour, and reckless conduct will not be tolerated. Lastly, A Fair and Just Culture balances the need to have a non-punitive reporting and continuous learning environment (i.e. an environment that is not focused on attributing blame and administering punishment), with the need to hold persons accountable for their actions.