A good safety culture in the workplace goes far beyond conducting risk assessments and isolating potential risks. Of course, identifying and reducing risks that pose a threat to the workforce must always be implemented. But without inspired and engaged employees, your safety measures won’t be as robust and effective as they could be.
What s a workplace safety culture?
A workplace safety culture reflects your employees’ shared attitudes, beliefs, and personal values about health and safety. Having a workforce that shares the same H&S behaviours and attitudes is extremely powerful because it positively shapes everyone’s behaviour. Remember, it’s all about having a positive culture in place that ensures everyone’s safety and well-being.
Valuing the significance of health and safety in the workplace creates a strong safety culture. To achieve this, clear and effective policies and procedures need to be instilled in the workforce.
Employee engagement is a key component of running an effective business and one of the most challenging. Because creating a strong workplace culture, every employee needs to take responsibility for their own safety and health and watch out for the safety of others.
Implementing a safety culture in the workplace is a serious task for any company, regardless of industry. At Terra Firma 360, we strongly believe that the most effective way of handling workplace accidents is to prevent them from happening. To do that, a company must have a well-constructed health and safety program.
Understand the Risks That Are Present in The Workplace
Before implementing a workplace safety culture, a company must also identify the risks present in the environment. This includes looking at past accidents and learning how to avoid them in the future. Having a clear understanding of these risks is essential to starting to build a safer workplace for everyone within your business.
Create and Roll-out A Health and Safety Plan
Once you have identified and evaluated the risks, you must develop good policies, processes and procedures for the business. Doing so reduces or even completely eliminates the risks. These procedures and processes should be realistic, consistent, and regularly communicated to the employees. A great way to do this is to regularly schedule engaging training sessions for employees. Another idea is to ask your team to complete a safety attitudes questionnaire to find out what their attitudes are.
Encourage Employees to Commit to The Plan
“After implementing your procedures and processes, a crucial aspect of workplace safety culture is to ensure that all employees are committed to creating a safer environment for everyone. This may require some employees to adjust their mindset and attitudes to prioritize workplace safety at all times. When you have a team that prioritizes the safety and well-being of each other, it signifies effective management of your safety culture.”
Consistently Monitor The Health and Safety Plan
The continued introduction of disruptive and innovative technologies means the business world is always subject to change. That’s why health and safety procedures and processes need continuous monitoring and evaluation to ensure that the actions taken work effectively.
Our Top Tips
You may find that building and introducing a safety culture is intimidating because your workplace has fallen into a pattern of complacency. Well, let us be clear: complacency is extremely dangerous in the workplace. It can cause injuries, illnesses, catastrophic accidents and, in the worst-case scenario, loss of life. If you are looking at ways of introducing a positive culture to ensure the safety and well-being of your employees, then here are some simple but highly effective tips.
- Provide your employees with safety training.
- Communicate.
- Lead by example.
- Have a positive reporting process in place.
- Regularly review your safety management systems.
- Involve employees in the process of developing a positive culture.
At Terra Firma 360, we are expert health and safety consultants and provide bespoke training to many businesses. If you would like help with building a culture of safety within your business, then please get in touch with us today! Call us on 020 3326 5137 or contact us
