The importance of building a strong workplace safety culture

Sadly there is no safety product, service, or new approach that will fix all of your workplace safety issues overnight. Safety can not be distilled; it is not one thing but a culmination of many factors coming together to create a culture. 

When it comes to safety, culture is everything. Some companies treat safety as an obligation; others make it a value that shapes every business decision. The difference between a company with an outstanding safety record and one performing poorly almost always comes down to the attitudes and values around safety. 

What is safety culture?

Safety culture is how a company manages safety and the beliefs, attitudes, and actions of management and employees about the subject. A company's safety culture can be negative or positive, but it can always be changed if you take the proper steps. 

Safety culture requires management buy-in

If you see a company with a poor safety culture, you will probably see management that does not value safety. Safety managers can speak to employees about regulations and policies until they are blue in the face, but it will not change a thing if the person those employees report to is not on board. 

Simply put, if management does not care, neither will their employees. To get on board with safety, management must identify the aspects of a safe workplace that most resonate with their priorities, whether the personal, emotional side of safety or the dollars and cents. Safety can help management achieve their goals, whatever those may be. 

Finally, always remember that perception matters. For example, if high-level management does not wear their personal protective equipment in the field, it sends a bad message that can spark discontentment. Management must always lead by example; if a rule applies to one person, it should apply to all people.

Trust is the building block of a safety culture

Workers must trust that there will be no negative repercussions from reporting accidents, hazards, and non-compliance. Nothing stops safety participation faster than a worker afraid of retaliation if they are involved in an accident. 

Accidents should not be treated as a witch hunt to find and punish who is responsible but as a learning opportunity for the organization. They are an opportunity to see what works, what does not, and how to prevent reoccurrence. Start viewing accidents less as a personal issue of the worker and more as an issue with the organization as a whole. Personal accountability is essential, but approaching accidents in the manner above will do more for your company culture than firing someone because they got hurt. 

Continuous improvement

A strong safety program needs reporting to facilitate continuous improvement, and accurate reporting requires employee participation, which only a strong safety culture provides. Once you have the data, you can dig into your leading and lagging indicators with the help of EHS software to gain a better understanding of your company's strengths and weaknesses around safety. This insight allows you to focus your efforts, apply your resources where they matter, and potentially prevent accidents before they happen. 

Set clear expectations

If workers do not understand expectations, how can they comply? First, you must establish clear safety rules and regulations and the repercussions for non-compliance. Nothing can sour a worker on safety faster than being penalized for not following a rule not explained clearly. 

Ensure that workers understand the rules. Putting them in a document and calling it good is not enough; you must train workers and ensure their understanding. In addition, make sure there is continuity between all members of management on how rules and accountability are applied. Clear expectations and consistency help eliminate surprises and build culture.  

Once you have focused on culture, then you can look outward

Once you have begun to shift your company culture, you can look for the best products to keep pursuing continuous improvement. Material handling is one industry that has significantly benefited from safety innovation. One of their most significant risks is the serious and sometimes fatal interactions between pedestrians and equipment. Here are some of the ways the industry can confront this issue. 

Using technology 

Installing pedestrian sensors on mobile equipment is one of the most dramatic ways to improve material handling safety. One of the industry leaders is SEEN Safety and their IRIS-860 sensors. These sensors detect when a person has entered a hazardous area around mobile equipment and audibly alert the operator. They do this by leveraging high visibility vests, one of the most commonly used pieces of personal protective equipment in the material handling industry. They are undoubtedly one of the simplest and most effective solutions today. However, while sensors provide dramatic safety improvements, companies must take additional steps. 

Implement traffic management solutions

Redesigning your workplace is a great, proactive approach to workplace safety, and traffic management is the best way to do it for the material handling industry. You can prevent many dangerous interactions between pedestrians and mobile equipment by installing barriers, increasing visibility, and designating safe walking and working areas. 

Provide ongoing training

Training should never stop. New hazards present themselves as workplace culture, processes, and tools change. Make sure the training evolves as quickly as your workplace does. Also, unfortunately, due to labor shortages brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, equipment operators today are often less experienced than ever before. Ensure you give equipment operators the training and tools they need to keep themselves and their coworkers safe. 

SEEN safety is here for you

There are no silver bullets; keeping workers safe requires a lot of different parts. Cultivating a strong safety culture, implementing cutting-edge technology like sensors, training employees, and changing the work environment are all part of a holistic approach to safety. To learn more, check whether SEEN Safety is right for you here.