Creating a genuine safety culture | EIR Group

We believe that many companies spend oodles of money and time trying to make sure they implement all the required safety procedures to protect their employees and ensure they operate legally. The increasing demands on employers and employees to provide evidence of operating in a safe way results in a lot of paperwork, papertrails, endless systems, processes and reports.

But at the end of the day, what?s important is that the workplace is as safe as it can possibly be. Workplaces are safest when?people?act?and behave?in safe ways.?Our behaviour is largely determined by the culture we live and work in.

So what does a safety culture look and feel like?

1. ?Real commitment at all levels. The senior leadership think about ?how safe are we all here? just as much as they are thinking ?how much money are we making here?. And, all the staff know it
2. Safety is seen as an investment not a cost. Everyone fundamentally gets that a safety budget will drive business performance, as much as they believe marketing initiatives will
3. Safety & health is part of continuous improvement People are looking for ways to improve safety performance ? it?s on their mind as much as improving their business performance
4. Safety Information is Everywhere Clear safety communications are everywhere for people to see, training is provided for people and information flows are two-way
5. Safety management systems are in place and used. Data from them is analysed systematically and revisions to policies, strategies and practices are made as a result.
6. Trust and Blame Free ?people feel they can report incidents and concerns without worry that management will look at them unfavourably.
7. ?Successes are celebrated ? good safety results are recognised and celebrated as much as any other business result

How close is your company to this? Most companies have a way to go before they get to this ideal. It?s tough work. Changing our own behaviour is hard enough ? changing others is almost impossible!

A safety culture will only exist where the top leadership drives it ? it?s actually as simple as that. So if you as the leader aren?t truly committed and don?t really see the value (other than compliance) then you need to change your mindset?and?your behaviour first.?

Then, once you are there, some simple inclusions into your business model will really start to embed the safety culture. Some ideas are:

• Annual business cycle includes a strategic review and plan for safety and ensuring this is communicated strongly throughout the business
• Put safety as a topic in every team meeting ? not an update from the safety team, rather a discussion that team members themselves lead. It may feel awkward for the first couple of weeks, but people soon loosen up and it?s amazing the things that can come up.
• Appoint a safety officer. This person needs to be commercially astute and passionate about safety. No form-filling, legislation sprouting, compliance motivated person, but someone who understands social systems and how to influence them, who cares about the commercial side of the business and keeps abreast of best practice in workplace safety.
• Involve influential team members in the safety committee, and reward them for contributing to the committee ? put your high flyers on it and really show them that by doing well in safety will contribute to their career progression

?Your safety culture won?t be built in a day, however embed even SOME of the ideas above and watch the change happen ? it will astound you.

Source: http://www.eirgroup.com.au/labour-hire-sydney/creating-a-genuine-safety-culture/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=creating-a-genuine-safety-culture

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