1.

0 Introduction
Rapid economic growth has given not only a significant impact in terms of income
distributions and quality of life, but it also resulted in increasing number of accidents at
workplace. In reducing risk at the workplace, Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) is an
important aspect. It is a standard which are set in legislation with the aim to eliminate and
reduce hazards at workplace. Besides OSH, the term of SAFETY CULTURE is also an
important aspect in reducing risk and accident at workplace
Safety culture is part of the overall culture of an organisation. The term first became
popular following the Chernobyl nuclear disaster when it was suggested that organisations
can reduce accidents and safety incidents by developing a Positive Safety Culture. The
notion of safety culture has been used extensively in the oil, gas and energy industries, the
transport sector, aviation and military, amongst others.
Organisations with a positive safety culture have communication based on mutual
trust, shared perceptions of the importance of safety, confidence in the effectiveness of
preventive measures and support for the workforce.

2.0 Definition Of Safety Culture

Safety culture incorporates the values and norms and beliefs of a particular company.

Safety culture is a groups initiatives, actions, exercises, processes, habits, training

and education and relationships, etc., that pool to establish the core principles and
values of the group.

Safety culture is the overall mind set of what folks think about safety on the job site,
that yes, we want to be a safe company.

Safety culture is how people act when nobodys watching.

Safety culture is a subset of the culture of the organization. It represents not

necessarily well articulated expressions of how and why things are done within the
organization.

The safety culture of an organization is the product of individual and group values,
attitudes, perceptions, competencies, and patterns of behaviour that determine the
commitment to, and the style and proficiency of an organizations health and safety
management. Organizations with a positive safety culture are characterized by

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communications founded on mutual trust, by shared perceptions of the importance of

safety and by confidence in the efficacy of preventive measures.

Shared values (what is important) and beliefs (how things work) that interact with a
companys people, organizational structures and control systems to produce
behavioural norms (the way we do things around here).

Safety cultures reflect the attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, and values that employees
share in relation to safety.

Safety culture is the set of beliefs, norms, attitudes, roles, and social and technical
practices that are concerned with minimizing the exposure of employees, managers,
customers and members of the public to conditions considered dangerous or injurious.

Safety culture is the concept that the organizations beliefs and attitudes, manifested
in actions, policies, and procedures, affect its safety performance.

Diagram 1: Safety Culture Model

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Figure 2: Safety Culture Maturity Model

Diagram 3: Basic Workplace Element Of A Safety Culture

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Diagram 4: The Swiss Chess Model of Accident Causation

3.0 Why Focus On Culture?

Safety management system not effective unless accompanied by a good safety
culture.

Wish to stay alert to potential risk factors that increase the risk of a major disaster.

Pro-active approach involving self-assessment and feedback of less visible elements

of safety management system.

Desire to win hearts and minds to improve safety.

Alternative, leading safety performance indicator.

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Diagram 5: Iceberg Theory

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ARE YOU READY TO CHANGE?

Understand your
culture

Realise you have

problems, from
incidents, audits etc.

Discover you have a

way to go and want
to improve

Select the right tools

to fix the problem

Identify what parts of

the culture is lagging
and design change
program
Find believers,
people willing to try

DO IT
Diagram 6: Culture Change

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4.0 Strategies To Move Forward In Positive Direction

13 strategies that will move safety culture forward in a positive direction. The 13 elements
that will be explored are:

4.1

MANAGEMENT OWNERSHIP OF SAFETY

The importance of management ownership of workplace safety cannot be

overstated. Simply put, management ownership of safety is the most important
characteristic of safety culture. It is well known that issues which the upper
management and leadership prioritizes as organizational objectives become important
to most stakeholders and employees. Further, business practices that upper
management chooses to formally endorse and reinforce with performance reviews,
meetings, discussions, and other interactions quickly become the organizational
norms. Consequently, the impact of ownership and involvement in safety that
organizational leadership takes cannot be understated. The single most important
workplace characteristic that determines whether an organization can achieve strong
safety performance or not is how much emphasis the management group places on
safety.
The first step that senior leadership must take is to establish a vision of safety
for the organization. This should be in the form of a well-written vision and mission
statement for workplace safety. This statement must be signed by the senior executive
within the organization and communicated to all members and stakeholders within the
company. Further, the safety vision and mission statement must be publically
displayed on the companys website. A discussion of the commitment to workplace
must be included in the companys annual report. Finally, the message that the only
acceptable way to work is safely must be communicated from all members of the
management team. This message must clearly state that any barriers to safe work
practices need to be removed from the organization and that it is the expectation of
the company that associates will not undertake safety before they begin to work, but
rather that employees will only work safely.
It is also crucial for executive performance appraisals to have an element of
workplace safety that is evaluated based process leading indicators. This means that
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any performance incentives must be process oriented and not outcome based.
Specifically, if management is only evaluated on the number of injuries, the
reduction in workers compensation costs, or the decline in lost work days, then
pressure may be created to hide injuries or discourage reporting or treatment. This
type of practice can be devastating to safety culture as it necessarily inhibits the
identification and remediation of risk due to a lack of reporting of information. The
goals that Senior Leadership sets for the organization, ad that are included in
performance appraisals, must be process-oriented, not outcome based. Examples of
process-oriented goals include establishing a viable behaviour-based safety process,
completing a certain number of risk reducing projects, creating a formalized Safety
Management System, ensuring that corrective actions that result from incident
investigations are completed in a timely manner, and so on.
The final characteristic that senior leadership and upper management can
exhibit in order to improve workplace safety is a relentless focus to remove blame fro
from the safety process and ensures an ample presentation of positive reinforcement
for safe behaviours. This concept aligns closely with the characteristic of performance
management, which is another specific strategy that can be employed to improve and
enhance the safety culture. Management must be at the forefront of efforts to help
transition the safety culture from one based on punishment and accountability to one
predicated on accomplishment and attribution.
One example that demonstrates a high-degree of management ownership of
the safety process involves a large multi-national manufacturing organization. This
company has an exceedingly low injury rate with a high degree of management
ownership of the safety process. On the rare occasions when an employee experiences
a workplace injury, the employee will be flown, first class, to the companys
headquarters for a one-on-one meeting with the CEO. During that meeting, the CEO
will apologize to the employee for experiencing an injury while working and will then
solicit suggestions from the employee to keep any similar event from occurring to
anyone else in the organization. Clearly, this company is led by senior leadership that
takes a high degree of ownership for safety and the results are world class safety
performance. This is also an example of an organization that has completely removed
blame from the equation of safety culture and replaced it with a culture that actively
cares for its employees.

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4.2

FRONTLINE SUPERVISOR INVOLVEMENT IN SAFETY

Frontline supervisors, department managers, or other immediate supervisors of

employees have a profound impact on the performance of occupational safety and
health in the workplace. Front-line supervisors are the members of management that
employees are most commonly come into contact with during the workday.
Department managers of one of the most challenging jobs in any retail establishment.
They are responsible for everything from sales, to merchandising, to housekeeping, to
scheduling, to fundamental human resources, to loss prevention, and safety. The
allocation of resources to each and every one of these demands falls within the
bailiwick of the department manager. In order for an organization to have a strong
safety culture, the department managers must prioritize, model, and support safe work
practices.
Specifically, department managers must ensure that every time an employee
makes a decision in favour of safety, even if its at the expense of customer service or
any other business demand that this decision is fully supported and will not lead to
any negative repercussions. Further, it is the role of the department manager to model
safe work practices themselves. If the department manager or front-line supervisor
ever works unsafely, and they will be sending a clear message to their associates that
this kind of behaviour is supported and condoned. The supervisor must also be
vigilant against creating the impression that any other consideration in the workplace
takes precedence over safety.

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Finally, and most importantly, the supervisor must provide appreciative and
positive feedback when their employees follow safe work practices. This feedback
will help to establish and solidify a solid safety culture within their work area.
A single unsafe act can result in an outcome that costs an organization tens
or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Supervisors must be cognizant that their role in
the workplace is to fully support the safe work activities of their employees with their
actions and their words. In doing so, they can directly impact the actions of their
employees, reduce risk for the entire organization, and contribute to a positive safety
culture.

4.3

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT IN SAFETY

Full employee engagement in workplace safety is often considered the holy

grail of safety. Employee engagement means that associates take ownership for their
own actions, the actions of others, and use their discretionary efforts to make the
safety personally and are willing to be actively involved in the safety process provides
any organization with a solid foundation on which to build a superior safety culture.
Indeed, as was discussed in the previous instalment of this three-part series,
one of the foundational aspects of safety culture is the perceptions, beliefs, values,
and traditions that employees have with respect for safety. If associates take
workplace safety personally then the safety culture is likely to be stronger. If
employees are willing to put forth discretionary effort to look out for their own wellbeing and the well-being of others, then the impact to the safety culture will increase
tremendously. Some examples that illustrate employee engagement in safety include
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having highly- functioning employee driven safety committees, utilizing crossfunctional accident and incident review boards, and establishing employee comprised
risk-assessment teams.
Under most models of organizational management, one clear tenet is to have a
self-directed workforce. Both research and experience by business professionals has
clearly demonstrated that the most successful organizations are those who have
employees who work independently, and diligently, toward a common goal. The field
of workplace safety is no different from any other business practice in this regard. If
employees will work safely, even when they are not under careful scrutiny, it
indicates a stronger safety culture. Further, when safe work practices, personal
ownership for safety, and a willingness to do more to improve safety become part of a
repeatable pattern of conduct within the company, then employees clearly have a high
degree of engagement in the safety process. Having associates exhibit the default
behaviour of always making decisions in favour or safety, not because of external
pressures but because of internal values and a belief that their efforts would be fully
supported by the company, then a world class model of safety culture has been
established.

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4.4

FUNCTIONALITY OF THE SAFETY DEPARTMENT

Clearly the functionality and ability of the Safety Department to effect a

positive influence on the organization plays a focal role in the optimization of the
safety culture. Companies who invest in the development of a safety professional are
known to have stronger safety cultures. This type of investment may include
encouraging formal education about the intricacies of workplace safety, encouraging
appropriate certifications, or allowing participation in local safety organizations such
as Department of Occupational Safety and Health(DOSH).
Once a company has committed to having a professional safety, then a means
for allowing them to have input and influence within the organization must be
established. Areas where the safety department can have influence and assist the
organization with improving safety culture include the following:
Conducting sessions of new-hire orientation and new associate training
Being involved in the selection and procurement of new equipment
Working to establish policies and procedures relating to safe work practices
Consulting on disciplinary action which results from associate violation of
safety policies
Investigating accidents, incidents and near-miss events and providing
recommendations to management for corrective actions to prevent similar
future occurrences
Presenting information regarding trends of safety activities at senior
management staff meetings
Participating as an advisor in an employee-driven safety committee
Ensuring safety is an organizational staff position with close ties to
Operations, human resources, and finances
Creating a budgetary line-item for safety related expenditures
Ensuring that the Safety Department has sufficient staffing and resources to
adequately serve the organization
Resisting the temptation to add other duties such as quality, environmental
protection, or other activities which would dilute the safety efforts

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Some organizations have been observed selecting employees to take on the

role of safety coordinator simply because they had difficulty being successful in
other positions. Another, more deliberate strategy, is to assign the role of safety
coordinator or safety manager to an individual who is in a management development
program. The hypothesis behind this action is that as a new manager develops in their
career, they must have experience in all the aspects of business, including safety. Both
of these approaches must be strenuously avoided as they diminish the effectiveness of
the safety process and reduce the perceived importance of workplace safety. If a
company truly values the safety, security, and well-being of its associates, then
investing in a full-time Safety Professional or Loss Prevention Professional clearly is
the only acceptable route to take. To do anything else will minimize the effectiveness
of the safety efforts, create a view that safety is a matter of convenience rather than a
core value, and ensure that all actions to improve safety will lack the necessary input
of a subject matter expert.

4.5

SAFETY COMMUNICATION

Communication about safety related items is another component of safety

culture that must be understood in order to be optimized. Most organizations do a
reasonably sufficient job communicating expectations regarding required adherence to
safety policies and programs. However, companies with higher levels of safety
culture not only communicate WHAT the expectations are for employee
performance, they also communicate the WHY. For example, if a company adopts a

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new policy regarding the handling and transport of merchandise, the reasons
motivating the change should be fully discussed and reviewed with the associates.
Simply issuing rules and regulations without communicating the reasons for changes
to the safety process will not help to engage or empower employees and it will
negatively affect the safety culture.
In order to elevate the effect that communication has in regard to safety, the
company must consider what information to communicate, how information is
communicated, and what impact the communication has on the organization. Not all
safety related information can be disseminated to the associates. Legal obligations,
moral constraints, and an understanding that the information might not help to
improve the safety process all represent excellent reasons for material not to be shared
with a larger audience. For example, if a company conducts a safety culture survey
and notes a wide range of perceptions based on different departments within the same
store, disseminating this information may be detrimental as it could create
unnecessary competition or a sense of failure by the departments with lower safety
cultural scores.
The means of communicating information must be multifaceted and
consistent. Few organizations rely on the outmoded communication tactic of the pay
check stuffer or the posting at the time clock. Each of these means of communication
requires the directed and specific effort on the part of the employee to read the
information. This assumes that the employee would even be motivated to do so in the
first place. Instead, it is wise to use alternate means of communicating information
about safety. Modes such as a well written and often read company newsletter can be
beneficial for general information. However, pertinent or information that is critical to
improving the safety and health of the associates is best covered in in-person meetings
with the information coming directly from the employees immediate supervisor.
Alternate means of communication that can also be somewhat effective include the
presentation of information during all store or facility meetings, departmental
meetings, or during performance appraisals. With the ever increasing use of
technology many organizations are finding value using mechanisms such as internal
web-based systems (intranet) with areas where employees can share information
regarding risk-reducing strategies.
It must also be remembered that communication must be done in a respectful
manner. Information relating to specific accidents, injuries, or other negative events
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should never be presented in a way that can identify the affected individuals. This
type of action can be very punishing and should be avoided. If the organization
wishes to use information such as this in a lessons-learned format, then it is critical
to ensure the confidentiality and anonymity of the affected parties.
Finally, the impact of the communication should be regularly and routinely
evaluated. If employees do not perceive that they receive regular updates about the
state of safety within the company, then a re-evaluation of communication protocols
should be undertaken. Further, if management believes that they provide a sufficient
amount of safety-related communication to employees through numerous channels,
but the employees do not seem to retain the information, then a review of what
information is given and how it is distributed will be vital. Organizations must
also be careful about the quality and quantity of information that is sent out. If general
and vague warnings such as always pay attention or be aware of your
surroundings are the norm, employees will learn that this information is generally
valueless and will not be interested in hearing other safety related topics. This type
of response to poorly crafted safety messages is at the heart of much of the apathy that
employees potentially develop toward workplace safety. Avoidance of apathy can be
achieved when meaningful information is disseminated using several mediums and is
packaged in an interesting and engaging manner. When employees feel that they can
identify with the message contained within the safety communication, and they
believe that this information will help them work more safely, then they will be more
receptive to the message and the overall safety culture will improve greatly.

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4.6

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

Performance Management is defined as the reinforcement of safe behaviours

and the coaching and application of accountability for unsafe or improve behaviours.
A well-designed performance management process is foundational to a successful
safety culture. The two elements of performance management, positive
reinforcement and accountability, will be explored independently and their roles in
safety culture.
Whenever attempting to create or enhance a robust safety culture, the use of
positive reinforcement for safe actions and behaviours needs to be a critical
consideration. Industrial psychologists have known for decades that the best way to
get repeated patterns of behaviour among employees is when those behaviours are
reinforced with positive outcomes. In the case of workplace safety, this means that
all safe work practices must be subjected to positive reinforcement. The best
way to accomplish positive reinforcement for observed safe work practices is
through the use of feedback. Simple conversations that follow safe behaviours can
have a profound effect at improving moral, engaging employees, and positively
reinforcing safe behaviour. However, in order for feedback to have maximum effect it
must be directed and specific to the act that is being reviewed. Providing employees
with a simple good-job may seem like a viable means of communicating
appreciation, but clearly pales when compared to a specific conversation. For
example, when an employee takes the time to carefully stack merchandise on a cart
for transport back to a stockroom, or when a receiving associate asks for help moving
a large quantity of boxes, they should each receive recognition that their efforts to
work safely are noted and appreciated. However, if the employee is simply told good
job they may internalize that they are being recognized for working hard or quickly.
In this example, it is possible to see how unfocused and non-specific feedback can
result in a mixed signal.
To take this thought even further, it is possible to see how associates could
receive unintended positive reinforcement for unsafe work practices. If employees get
a job or task completed quickly and efficiently, they may receive praise or a reward
for doing so. However, if the behaviours involved in completing the task were done in
an unsafe manner, the use of the praise could actually be undermining the safety
efforts. Employees who believe that working quickly and productively is the most
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important consideration at work may be tempted to cut corners, and are positively
reinforced when they do. When a manager or department supervisor communicates
their expectations that all employees must work safely, and then they ensure to
provide ample positive feedback for observed safe behaviours, then these safe
behaviours are significantly more likely to continue. An even more potent approach is
for employees to give one another positive feedback in a formalized system. This
approach to safety is called Behaviour Based Safety, and is known to have a profound
impact on both organizational safety culture and outcome performance. The
implementation of a Behaviour Based Safety Process is one way to generate
significant positive momentum to a workplace safety process.
The other aspect of performance management involves accountability.
Accountability can be constructive when it is forward looking and provides
instruction for future behaviour. Punishment is never a worthwhile component of any
constructive Safety Culture and its use should be reserved for egregiously intentional
acts that violate established policies and procedures. In order to adequately and
effectively apply accountability an organization must have clearly defined policies
and procedures that outline expected performance with safety-critical activities. The
formal aspects of the safety program must be communicated and understood by all
associates. When violations of known polices occur it must be determined if there was
an intention to disregard the rules or not. If no intention was present, the failure of the
employee may be due to a knowledge gap which requires training. The failure may
also be due to the employee understanding the policy and making the conscious
decision to violate it. Normally though, unsafe acts by employees occur as a result
systemic flaws in the fabric of the workplace. Some of the systemic issues may
include improper staffing so that employees are faced with the choice of working
unsafely or taking care of customers, putting unrealistic pressure on employees to
complete a job or task in a short amount of time, or not providing coaching when
employees are occasionally observed working unsafely. Each of these conditions will
create a situation where unsafe acts are more likely to occur. When these unsafe acts
result in an accident or injury, it may be tempting to punish the employee for violating
the rules. In reality, punishment must only be administered when the goal is the
removal of the offending individual. In most cases, unsafe acts warrant coaching and
instruction rather than reprimand.

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Therefore, performance management is the ready and liberal application of

positive reinforcement whenever safe work practices are observed and the use of
coaching and constructive feedback when unsafe actions are noted. Punishment is
reserved for those acts where an intentional disregard for known safety practices
occurs that puts person at risk of injury. Under no circumstances should the use of
punishment considered as effective or efficient as the use of positive reinforcement
that is generated from the application of appreciative feedback.

4.7

FORMALIZED SAFETY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

The formalized elements of the Safety Management System (SMS) include

those items that are specifically developed and implemented to manage the safety
process. These elements include, but are not limited to:
Safety Policies and Procedures
Incident Investigation Protocols
Job Safety Analysis
Risk Assessment/Risk Reduction Efforts
Safety Training and Safety Education
Pre-Job Planning

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The perceived effectiveness of the formal safety and health systems can have a
profound impact on the overall safety culture. Specifically, when employees believe
that the formal elements of workplace safety are well designed and well implemented,
they will also believe that the safety culture is solid.
In order for the SMS to be highly effective at reducing risk and improving
safety performance there are a few points to consider. As many of the components
as possible should be developed with the collaboration between management and
employees. Also, an online tool for managing and integrating the elements of the
SMS can prove useful and act as a significant time saver for the administrator of the
system. Finally, metrics for each element of the SMS should be defined, have levels
of successful implementation established, and tracked on a regular basis (weekly,
monthly, etc) For example, if it is expected that all employees who work in the
receiving department will have annual forklift safety training completed, the
expectation should be made that once the due date has arrived, that all required
employees will have received the needed training. By following the steps listed above,
the SMS can significantly improve the existing safety culture and help to reduce
injuries and accidents.

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4.8

RISK IDENTIFICATION AND CONTROL

An organizations ability to identify and control risk makes up another
important component of the safety culture. Specifically, when a company can find
and remediate risk, the chances of injury decrease significantly. Associates who
believe that their employer has a robust safety culture will consider the willingness
of the company to both identify and remediate risks as a key component of these
efforts. It has been noted on numerous surveys of safety culture that employees will
often note when unsafe conditions are found and how long it takes the company to fix
them. When employees believe that the company will not immediately correct hazards
then they generally have a negative view of the safety culture.
Organizations can improve this aspect of their safety culture by immediately
addressing hazards that can be fixed in an expeditious manner, creating plans to
remediate hazards that will require more time, establishing funding for any capital
expenditures that must be undertaken, and communicating all plans with the affected
employees. When people know that their concerns are being addressed, they will have
a favourable view of the safety culture and will be much more willing to report risks
and participate in the solutions.

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4.9

REPORTING AND INVESTIGATION

Employees ability to report risk and their willingness to do so is one of the
primary sources of information that companies have about hazards. When employees
are unwilling to report risk, near misses, minor injuries, and other events, the
company has an ongoing source of data that can be used to create risk reduction
strategies. The input from employees regarding these events is crucial. Further, if
employees are unwilling to report for fear of getting blamed or being punished, then
they will likely be less engaged in workplace safety and will take less ownership for
the safety process. This lack of engagement will lead to lower overall Safety Culture
scores and can negatively impact other aspects of business such as production,
customer services, quality of work, and retention of employees.
The importance of removing blame from workplace safety is of paramount
concern to companies that are trying to improve their safety cultures. The use of
blame in safety is a characteristic of very traditional workplace safety systems. In
these systems if an employee experiences an injury or incident, they are usually
blamed for their actions, may be held accountable or punished, and will generally
refrain from reporting events again in the future. Using blame also allows a company
to take the easy way out from having to address the true issues that drive risk or create
unsafe conditions. Essentially, blaming an employee for working unsafely, without
examining the systems of the workplace for the upstream causal factors that led to the
unsafe act, ensures that no elements of the workplace will change to reducing risk or
fix the true drivers of the hazards. For example, if an employee is injured while
cutting open a box and is subsequently written-up for using a non-approved boxcutter, the employer never needs to find out why the employee used a non- approved
tool, how the lack of longevity viable use for the approved tool could be a factor, or
that the training program where employees are educated about how to properly cut
open boxes is deficient. All of these systemic causes of risk could have contributed to
the injury, but due to a lack of using a systems based approach to safety, and by
blaming the employees, they will not be discovered and will remain as residual risk
that could potentially lead to injuries for other employees.
To enhance reporting and investigation, stores must ensure that employees
are comfortable reporting all injuries, no matter how minor. They must also
make certain that investigations into injuries to do not focus on assigning blame or

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accountability. If needed, these actions can be taken later, but should be limited to
those cases where employees clearly knew that they were violating a policy and had
the intention of putting themselves or others in harms way. The application of
blame in the safety process will always lead to the hiding of injuries and will ensure
that the safety culture never achieves world class status.

4.10

WORKPLACE SYSTEMS

Workplace systems are defined as those elements of the workplace that are
not specifically designed to have an impact on safety but are obviously very important
to the safety performance of any place of work. Workplace systems that impact safety
include such component as housekeeping, preventative maintenance, workflow and
product distribution, and staffing levels. Although these elements are not established
specifically for workplace safety, their impact on safety and safety culture is
undeniable.
Specifically, if a store has poor housekeeping the likelihood of slip, trip, and
falls for both associates and customers increases significantly. If a store has poor
staffing levels then both customer service and safety can be negatively impacted.
Employees are tempted to lift more and are less likely to seek help if they are working
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alone during a busy time. If employees work with equipment such as cardboard
bailers, trash compactors, forklifts, or other large pieces of moving equipment that are
not well maintained or are not subject to routine preventative maintenance, then the
chances of equipment failure leading to accidents or injuries increases substantially.
Clearly, ensuring that a workplace has solid systems is crucial to ensuring
efficiency, effectiveness, customer service and safety. When any one major workplace
system is neglected, all of them can suffer. Although none of these activities are
designed to directly impact safety, their influence over safety performance is
undeniable. The value of understanding the role of workplace systems on safety
performance is of considerable importance for every Loss Prevention Professional.

4.11

EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT

When employees are empowered they believe that they have the ability to
meaningfully contribute to the success of safety in the workplace. This concept is the
polar opposite of Employee Engagement as employee engagement describes the
willingness of employees to make a difference to the safety process. Employee
empowerment evaluates the ability that employees have to contribute to the safety of
the workplace in a manner that makes a real and profound difference.
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Employee empowerment operates in concert with Employee Engagement.

Specifically, when associates are motivated to make a difference in workplace
safety (Engagement) and they believe that they can do so and that their contributions
will be welcomed (Empowerment) then the optimum condition can be reached. It is
crucial for organizations to work diligently to engage employees. With respect to
workplace safety, it is generally accepted that those closest to the risk of injury, the
associates, know the most about the risk and often have insight into how injuries can
be prevented and risk mitigated. By actively seeking to engage associates, companies
are capitalizing on their greatest sources of information and knowledge. Further, when
employees are actively engaged in the safety process they will take a much greater
degree of ownership for any risk-reducing solutions that they develop.
The association between employee engagement and employee empowerment
is cyclical and relational. Engaged employees are much more likely to offer
suggestions and participate in activities relating to improving the level of workplace
safety. If these efforts are rewarded by an employer who implements suggestions,
ideas, and strategies created by the employees, then the employees will take even
greater ownership for workplace safety.
It is strongly recommended that companies actively seek reasons to
implement employee suggestions rather than trying to find reasons why proposals
will not work. The degree of ownership that workers take when the ideas that they
are supporting are their own, or peer generated, is significantly higher than the
ownership that they take for procedures and policies mandated by the establishment.
The role that properly empowering employees has on the safety culture is profound,
long-lasting, and very self-sustaining. There are very few downsides when it comes to
ensuring that employees have every opportunity to make meaningful contributions to
workplace safety.

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4.12

SAFETY TRAINING, EDUCATION AND FLUENCY

The importance of Safety Training, Education, and Fluency should be readily

apparent. If employees do not have the knowledge to work safely, then the safety
culture will be greatly impaired. The effectiveness that companies have imparting
knowledge about risks, hazards, and work practices is directly proportional to the
performance of associates when it comes to safety-related behaviour. If employees do
not have the knowledge of risks and safe work practices, it will be functionally
impossible for them to work safely.
For our purposes fluency is defined as having an ability to work in an
automatic or habitual manner. Fluency is the presence of a broad-based level of
knowledge that is supported by familiarity of efforts. Aubrey Daniels mentioned in a
2010 blog posting that fluency is critical because when companies fail to educate
employees to a fluent level it they will spend more time and effort later on. He states
Spend the time and money to train people to fluency: One of the most costly
mistakes companies make is to put people in jobs before they are fluent in the
critical aspects of the job. The amount of repetition required for fluency is far more
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than the average trainer understands, but the extra time pays off in happier
customers and more confident and competent employees. Obviously, within the
context of safety, when employees achieve fluent performance relating to safe work
practices they will greatly reduce their risks of injury. Further, employees who are
fluent in safety are more likely to be comfortable giving feedback to peers, coaching
peers on safe work practices, and taking a high level of ownership for the safety
process.
Ensuring that employees have the appropriate degree of knowledge, skills,
and ability to work safely has a direct impact on the Safety Culture. Conversely, if an
organization does not spend the time and resources to adequately educate employees,
it is clearly symptomatic of dysfunctional workplace systems that place emphasis on
short-term objectives and the expense of long-term outcomes.

4.13

SAFETY VS. PRODUCTION

Safety versus Production describes the relationship between how production

demands are perceived compared with working safely. Specifically, this category
explores the relationship of safety to production to discover the scope of

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subordination that safety has to production or the level of integration that safety has
with productive work.
When a healthy balance is achieved associates will no longer have to do safety
and then do their work, they will simply work safely. In situations where a healthy
balance between production and safety are created it is generally facilitated by
supervisors who prioritize safety and ensure that working safely is the only acceptable
norm. Companies that prioritize a stability of the relationship to safety and productive
work demonstrate this through the behaviours exhibited by management, supervisors
and employees.
When safety is viewed as an inhibition or a hindrance to productive work, the
organization faces greatly elevated risk and a much higher chance for workplace
injury. Organizational deficiencies in this category are among the most difficult to
overcome. This is due to the common perspective that workplace production is the
most crucial organizational value and that this value is often strongly supported and
typically exists at the very core of many cultural norms. Further, employees are
routinely given positive reinforcement for working productively even if it is at the
expense of being safe. Although this creates a situation where the Safety Culture can
be seriously impacted, it is typically not done intentionally as management is
generally just trying to reward employees for being dedicated and hard-working.
Unfortunately, but not realizing that employees may have worked unsafely while they
were being productive creates a situation actually receive appreciative feedback for
unsafe behaviour. Ensuring that feedback is directed and specific, and making certain
that employees who work safely receive ample appreciative feedback, will help
restore or maintain a healthy perspective regarding the relationship of production to
safety.

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5.0 Barriers to Cultural Change

It is important to also recognise that barriers exist to achieving long term cultural
change. Here are some examples to the barriers to effective change:

Management styles may be different between departments. This may create

inconsistencies in the right message been sent

There may be weaknesses in the communication interface. Unclear lines of

communication may cause confusion and a lack of involvement in the process

Managements role in balancing the principles, policies, objectives, and safety culture
among the functional areas is often constrained by an inability to communicate
between the top and bottom of the organisation. The goal should be to make safety a
value, not just a priority

Organisational bureaucracy may often work against the safety culture. Oftentimes
routine tasks become the causal factor of human performance errors because they are
so routine that employees find ways to cut steps out of the process

The formality of procedures and the clear lines of authority also constrain the
competitive nature of empowering employees

Risk of recruiting people who may not buy in to the organisations safety culture. It is
important that all new employees (at every level of the organisation) are trained in a
timely manner and gain operating experience to match current employees, thus having
negative effects on the safety culture

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60. Benefit Improving Safety Culture

a) Employees

Time and funds

Job feedback

Healthy and safe work environments

Improved scheduling

Control over workloads

2-way communication

b) Employers

Increased capabilities

Improved productivity

Reduced costs

Reduced turnover

Higher trust

Higher commitment

Good reputation

7.0 Conclusion
Safety culture is now generally accepted as a good thing to have, and there is a
growing consensus about the main features of a positive safety culture. The links between
safety culture and organisational and occupational accidents are becoming increasingly clear.
A local plants safety culture is likely to be influenced by national cultural differences, but
this does not mean incoming organisations cannot develop their own safety cultures. Rather,
they will have to take into account existing national cultural influences as they develop their
own. There are a range of methods available to assess safety culture. A reciprocal relationship
exists between safety culture, behavioural safety and team working. Behavioural safety and
team working both can support the development of a mature safety culture with high levels of
employee involvement. Similarly a strong safety culture allows team working and
behavioural safety to flourish.

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8.0 References
1) www.nrc.gov/.../safety-culture/sc-presentation-template-agreement-states....
2) www.behavioral-safety.com/.../Improving_safety_culture_a_practical_g...
3) www.mbie.govt.nz/pdf-library/what-we-do/pike.../people-come-first
4) www.ccohs.ca/scholarship/winners/2006-07/Essay_B_Macdonald.pdf
5) www.iosh.co.uk/positiveculture
6) www.rcisafety.com/docs/user.../rci-conference-2013---february-rtp.pdf?
7) www.behavioral-safety.com/.../safety_culture_understanding_a_difficult...
8) www.hse.gov.uk/humanfactors/topics/07culture.pdf
9) www.hopkinsmedicine.org ... Improving Patient Safety
10) patientsafety.health.org.uk/.../safety_culture_-_what_is_it_and_how_do_...
11) www.managementbriefs.com/_media/pdfs/safety_matters_chapter3.pdf
12) www.irfoffshoresafety.com/.../Safety-culture-effective-improvement-stra.
13) www.hse.gov.uk/humanfactors/topics/common4.pdf
14) tmsconsulting.com.au/ws.../TMS_White_Paper_-_Safety_Culture.pdf
15) www.cognitivesystemsdesign.net/.../Safety%20Culture%20&%20Change...
16) www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/regulatory/enforcement/barnes.pdf
17) www.safework.sa.gov.au/uploaded.../meatCultureLiteratureReviewV81.p.

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