When it comes to Health and Safety, a workplace’s culture is often overlooked. While this is a mistake in any sector, the cost of poor Safety Culture in the manufacturing industry can be catastrophic. But what exactly is Safety Culture? 

When it comes to Health and Safety, a workplace’s culture is often overlooked. While this is a mistake in any sector, the cost of poor Safety Culture in the manufacturing industry can be catastrophic. But what exactly is Safety Culture?

What is Safety Culture?

The UK Health and Safety Executive defines Safety Culture as: “The product of the individual and group values, attitudes, competencies and patterns of behaviour that determine the commitment to, and the style and proficiency of, an organization’s Health and Safety programs.” Put simply, Safety Culture is how an organisation behaves when nobody is watching. The problem is, as human beings we all have a natural inclination to take risks. Positive Safety Culture aims to mitigate this risk-taking behaviour in the workplace.

Why it matters

Successful Health and Safety management relies on much more than just the controlling of physical risk. It requires the creation of a positive and sustainable Health and Safety Culture from top to bottom. Training and policies alone are simply not enough to ensure staff compliance. Research shows that in isolation both have very little impact in improving levels of employee compliance, unless the correct Safety Culture is in place to foster it. In encouraging employee compliance, Safety Culture benefits businesses in two key ways:

Fewer accidents

With high temperatures, heavy machinery, processing and packaging equipment, a manufacturing environment naturally poses more risk to workers than the average desk job. Therefore, it comes as little surprise that as an industry it holds one of the highest rates for workplace injuries and fatalities. However, improving Safety Culture really can have a dramatic impact in reducing rates of illness and injury. Following the introduction of a national OHS strategy, the Australian manufacturing industry saw a 38% drop in the number of workplace injuries. Accident and injury rates within the UK manufacturing industry have also fallen in recent years. But with 19 fatalities and 64,000 injuries still occurring on average per annum it’s vital this downward trend continues.

More money

With Safety Culture proven to have a significant impact on the balance sheet, for businesses both large and small the financial ramifications of poor Safety Culture can be significant. Within larger organisations, a strong culture is considered a reliable indicator of a business’ success, while smaller companies with a poor Safety Culture risk a potentially immediate and damaging impact to their books. The loss of just one employee due to work related illness or injury could result in orders and targets not being met. This could ultimately be damaging not just a company’s financials but also their customer reputation, the long-term cost of which may be even greater than the initial financial loss.

Measuring Safety Culture

With Health and Safety commonly associated with extra work and added stress, many employees unfortunately, but not surprisingly, opt to conduct work tasks without following safety protocol. Poor Safety Culture may present itself in the following ways:

• Frequent and widespread procedural violations
• Senior level decision makers who prioritise cost and production over safety
• Following an accident or incident, management direct blame towards individuals
• Employees who seem confused or unaware of Health and Safety protocol
• Widespread disregard for Health and Safety procedures amongst employees

But there’s good news. With an effective Safety Culture in place, this can all change. So, what does an effective Safety Culture look like?

According to The UK Health and Safety Executive, organisations with a positive Safety Culture are “characterised by communications founded on mutual trust, by shared perceptions of the importance of safety and by confidence in the efficacy of preventive measures.” Essentially an effective Safety Culture calls for the following:

Presenting Health and Safety Management as a joint exercise

Active employee participation at all levels is essential to building a strong Safety Culture. Businesses with a good Safety Culture encourage employees to regularly ask questions about Health and Safety and take what is said seriously. This may include involvement in workshops, risk assessments or one-on-one interviews.

Management commitment

Senior management must reinforce the importance of Health and Safety compliance and visibly demonstrate their commitment to employee safety by ensuring sufficient time, money and people are allocated to ensuring company-wide safety.

Visible management

Research shows that style of management is extremely significant in promoting a culture of safety. A recent DRI survey of more than 220 Health and Safety professionals found 58% of respondents identified leadership and management participation as the strongest factor to positively influence their attitude towards Health and Safety in the workplace. Managers need to be seen to lead by example, prioritising Health and Safety over production figures and cost cutting. Good managers take the time to regularly walk the shop floor, talk about Health and Safety, and visibly demonstrate their commitment to protocol through their actions. It is vital management is seen to be sincerely committed to safety. Should they not be, employees will likely assume it’s of little real importance. They will assume they are expected to prioritise commercial interests over safety protocol, and in doing so will continue to put themselves and others at risk.

Implementing an effective Safety Culture

Take control of your Safety Culture. Watch our webinar with experts Tim Marsh and Sterling Crew as they share their knowledge and offer actionable advice to help you implement and improve Safety Culture in your business. Plus, with our short software demo you’ll discover how DRI could reduce your risk and save you time and money!