Workplace Health And Safety Culture

A culture of health and safety is shared, taught or copied. In a business setting, acceptance or tolerance to risks and how hazards get controlled. It includes how you deal with accidents and near misses and is commonly known as a health and safety culture in the workplace.

Health and safety strategies should all come together with successful Risk Management. IOSH identify that the three main elements of a positive health and safety culture are the working environment, systems and procedures, and the people in the organisation.

Embedding a culture of safety starts with the senior management team showing positive attitudes and leadership commitment to behavioural change. Once the workforce is on board, you must consider what suitable arrangements must be implemented to ensure that your organisational health and safety culture can manage risk holistically.

The success of your health and safety strategies hinges on your employees’ attitudes and behaviour regarding health and safety practices in the office environment, which they would consider the norm. Learning how to improve safety culture in the workplace is ever-evolving and requires shared values and beliefs that result from the organisation’s management structure, process and current safety practices.

Influencing health and safety culture in a business doesn’t happen overnight, and improving safety with instant results is a fundamental change in a company culture that requires time, which should be considered when planning your next steps. Remember that what might work for one company may not work for you in achieving a positive health and safety culture in the workplace. With this in mind, establishing what is happening in your organisation is the first step.

Analyse your accident book and reports of near misses or safety incidents. It will identify any poor safety performance, unsafe attitudes, and possibly any poor health and safety culture regarding safety measures.

1. Regular risk assessments, review reports, and employee questionnaires are needed to build a picture of the business, focus your resources on the central issues, identify any safety issues, and promote a positive health and safety culture.
2. Leadership – ensuring management is visible and in close contact with the workforce.
3. Regular attendance to health and safety culture training.
4. Monitoring employees’ safety concerns towards the organisation through employee forums of a confidential post-review.
5. Ensure that employees know their requirements for improving health and safety culture.
6. Review employees’ awareness of health and safety strategies and issues for themselves and others.
7. Clearly understand what is acceptable and unacceptable regarding reckless behaviour that creates a poor health and safety culture.
8. Look at implementing your reporting system that doesn’t focus on a blame culture but instead encourages or rewards coming forward and reporting safety concerns.
9. Invest in the apparent influential people within the workforce. These people are essential for communication between management and the workforce and for improving and promoting positive health and safety practices.
10. Ensure that the standard safe working procedures you adopt comply with the law and best practices.

Once you have implemented your way of identifying a health safety culture, consider implementing the Plan-Do-Check-Act Framework, which will assist you in promoting a culture of safety in your organisation.