Improving Health and Safety Behavior

There is some guidance to help you improve health and safety behavior at workplace. A behavioral safety process
that identifies and reinforces safe behavior and reduces unsafe behavior.
Behavioral safety processes aren’t a ’quick fix’ and it’s important not to overlook fundamental elements. You
should begin by concentrating on policies and systems – assessing and improving management and operational
factors, training, design and so on.
Management Commitment & Leadership
The safety culture of an organization can only be improved if a clear commitment
has been made by management, with visible leadership. An important factor in
demonstrating management commitment is visible leadership. If management are
never seen taking an active interest in safety issues, then there will be an
assumption that they are not interested. Individual managers must show their
commitment to health and safety to their staff as this creates the local safety
culture.

Visible commitment can be demonstrated by:

Behaving safely

Involvement in the day-to-day management of health and safety e.g. by attending safety meetings

Taking part in safety tours or audits

Promoting changes to improve health and safety

Enforcing the company safety rules

Motivations & Rewards Program
Competent Staff:
A competent person is a person who has

Sufficient training, knowledge, experience and other abilities or skills to be
able to carry out their works safely and without risk to health.

Competent workforce to carry out the tasks that they have been allocated.
It is the responsibility of the employer to ensure that workers are competent to
carry out the tasks that they have been allocated. The more competent the workers,
the better able they will be to do their job safely. Manager should also be competent.
This means that all mangers should have an understanding of the health and safety implications
of the decisions they make on a day-to-day basis.
Effective Communication:
There are three principal delivery media for communicating information, verbal, written and graphic.
1-Verbal Communication:
Communication using the spoken word, e.g. face-to-face conversation, meetings, interviews, training sessions, by
telephone or over a public announcement (PA) system.
This is easiest and most commonly used form of communication but there are various weakness associated with
this method. If verbal communication is to be used to convey safety-critical
information to workers these weaknesses must be overcome through
following steps
- Communication must be direct
- Allows for exchange of views
- Allows for feedback to be given
- Allows for checking of understanding
2-Written Communication:
Communication using the written word, e.g. report, memo, e-mail, notice, company handbook, policy document,
operating instructions, risk assessment, minutes of meetings etc. The site should maintain all written records.
3-Graphic Communication:
Communication using pictures, symbols or pictograms e.g. safety signs, such as a fire exit sign, hazard warning
symbols such as skull and crossbones found on the label of a toxic chemical, or photographs, such as of a machine
showing a guard being used correctly in the operating instructions for the machine. Evacuation plans
Benefits of graphic communications are
- Eye-catching
- Visual
- Quick to interpret
- No language barrier
- Jargon-free
- Conveys a message to wide audience
Broadcasting Methods:
There are various ways of broadcasting health and safety information using the three media we discussed above.
Each of these broadcasting techniques has its own strengths and limitations and so usually a mix of some or all of
these techniques is used to ensure that essential messages are transmitted and correctly understood by all staff.
• Notice Boards
Should be eye-catching and located in areas used by all workers,
e.g. rest rooms or central corridors, notices should be current,
relevant and tidily displayed. Cluttered, out-of-date, irrelevant
notices obscure the messages being conveyed. Displaying a notice
does not mean that it will be read. Typical contents might include the
safety policy, employer’s liability insurance certificate, risk assessment
& emergency procedures; identify of safety representatives and first-aiders,
minutes of safety committee meetings, accident statistics etc.
• Posters and videos
Used to provide safety information, drawing attention to particular issues and supporting the safety culture.
Benefits of posters and videos
- Eye-catching and generate interest
- avoid language barriers
- Low cost
- Can be reinforce key messages
• Toolbox talks: Short, practical safety briefing carried out routinely in the workplace. They can be useful for
generating awareness and discussion on safety precautions however the site should ensure the topic are
relevant to the workplace.
• Memos and e-mails: written notification used to provide specific information about a single issue, such as
updating procedures, changes in process and management infrastructures etc.
• Worker handbooks: it is used to set out the company’s H&S policy. The site should provide copy on joining
the organization. This is key documents containing rules, operating procedures, emergency arrangement
etc.

• Co-operation and Consultation: A positive safety culture can only be created and implemented with
worker’s cooperation and consultation. If workers feel that they are being dictated to then they will feel
little ownership of health and safety. The most effective way to avoid this negativity and to actively
encourage workers interest and ownership is to involve workers in the decision-making process, which is
best achieved through worker consultations. There are several methods can be used for consultations with
workers. For instance, Direct consultation where the employer talk director to each worker and resolves
issue as they occur. Worker Representatives: A health and safety committee is established, made up of key
management personnel and workers representatives. They meet regularly to discuss H&S matters and
resolve issues.

• Trainings:
In the context of health and safety, training can be considered as the planned, formal process of acquiring
and practicing knowledge and skills in a relatively safe environment. Employers have responsibility to train
their staff to carry out their jobs in a safe manner. Training is a key component of competence. Training has
dramatic effect on safety-related behavior.
Once the workers have been properly trained they will understand;
- The hazards and risks inherent in their work
- The correct rules and precautions to apply
- Foreseeable emergencies and the action to take, should these events occur
- Use of PPE’s
The site should provide training opportunities in following scenarios
- New employees – induction trainings
 - Job change
- Process change
- New technology
- New legislation
It is important to keep records of trainings, not only to records who has been trained but also to update an show
progress against the training plan. After providing the trainings, the site should evaluate the effectiveness of the
trainings and maintain the records accordingly.
Disciplinary procedure:
Occasionally, it may be necessary to use disciplinary procedures to enforce the health and safety rules, e.g. in the
event that and employee endangers their safety or the safety of others. In these circumstances the employer
would be negligent in ignoring such behavior and must act to ensure that it is not repeated.
Which of these situations might result in disciplinary action?
• A supervisor fails to follow a procedure and instructs their shift to cut corners in order to save time
• A worker drives a forklift truck recklessly and collides with racking, causing damage.
• A supervisor fails to isolate a machine before working on it (against their training), as the job was
only of short duration.
• A worker climb over a locked machine guards to carry out a quality checks.
• An office employee repeatedly enters the factory area without the required PPE despite being told
several times of the requirements
The answer is clearly that these could all potentially result in disciplinary action, though the level of action would
depend upon each individual situation. It is common for minor breaches of health and safety procedures to be
dealt with informally through discussion and coaching.