A safe and healthy work environment and culture is critical.

In organizations with a positive safety culture, employees are more likely to adopt safe ways of working and have lower workplace accidents and injury rates. Secure and safe workspaces not only help boost employee productivity and well-being, but also ensure that everyone on the team is committed to common organizational goals.

What is Health and Safety Culture in the Workplace?

Health and safety culture is defined as a set of attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, and practices widely shared by employees at every level of an organization. A strong safety culture unites company employees around a common goal to minimize workplace hazards and risks.  If employees perceive a strong health and safety culture within their organization, then this promotes the feeling of personal and collective safety, as well as trust in their company’s competitive performance.

Characteristics of Negative Safety Culture

By contrast, negative safety culture means it is not a priority for the company and not every employee takes safety measures seriously. This can compromise safety procedures. Below you can find the most common signs of poor health and safety culture in the workplace: 

• Most employees feel health and safety measures are not important and behave in ways that compromise workplace safety. 
• Employees are inadequately trained in health and safety procedures and see safety education as unnecessary. 
• Employees hesitate to tell their supervisors about their safety concerns, resulting in under-reporting of accidents and incidents. 
• There is a lack of communication from senior management about the importance of workplace safety.

Characteristics of Positive Safety Culture

In a positive safety culture, employees understand the steps needed to maintain a safe work environment. Some of the widespread attributes of a strong safety culture include:

• Shared values, beliefs, and practices about what workplace health and safety entails.
• Contribution to safety measures from every employee.
• Recurrent education and training on the matters of health and safety.
• Proactive safety protocols with a strong focus on risk avoidance and accident prevention.

Top 7 Ideas to Improve Safety Culture in the Workplace

Whether you are looking to enhance the safety culture of an established business or build it from scratch, consider these approaches to develop a positive safety culture: 

Create an Organizational Vision for Safety

Safety culture is intended to promote awareness in all parts of an organization. Policies and procedures must be established with a goal to build a supportive environment and help keep safety as a top priority in every workplace situation.

Involve Every Employee

Establish a positive safety culture from the ground up. Consider creating a safety committee, which helps to develop strong employee morale and safety consciousness. Having a safety committee ensures that the responsibility of implementing the company’s safety program is shared by all employees.

Implement Sufficient Safety Training

Safety culture thrives where employees are granted frequent training opportunities. Make it simple for your supervisors and staff to attend safety trainings by accommodating the sessions to their schedule. Consider online safety courses: virtual trainings give your employees the flexibility and convenience to learn from anywhere.

Communication Is Key

Employees learn about the company’s safety culture through constant communication. Clear and regular communication by upper management help employees keep safety measures top of mind for everyone. When employees constantly communicate with one another in a transparent and respectful manner, they are also more likely to raise concerns about safety risks in the workplace.

Develop a Reporting System

Improving your company’s health and safety culture is linked to how willingly your employees are to report health and safety matters. One way to develop a positive association with reporting is to create an appraisal system that rewards workers who duly report workplace hazards. If employees feel at ease with the reporting process, this is a clear indication of a positive safety culture.

Evaluate Your Safety Program

Track your progress and always be on the lookout for opportunities to improve health and safety culture in the workplace. Monitor both leading and underperforming safety metrics to decide where to focus your efforts and resources.

Lead by Example

When management follows safety policies, it encourages employees to follow suit. Companies that lead by example understand that emergencies can happen at any time. What sets these companies apart is that they have effective systems in place to immediately address incidents and investigate the root causes, and ensure it never happens again.

Final words

A positive health and safety culture in the workplace warrants a high level of standards to support safety procedures. Companies invested in building and maintaining strong safety cultures administer effective processes for training, reporting, communication, and general safety management. Encouraging a top-down commitment to safety and demonstrating a real dedication to every employee’s well-being is crucial to develop an optimal work environment.