The Keys to Unlocking Safety Culture

Enterprise EHS Software Solutions

THE KEYS TO UNLOCKING SAFETY CULTURE


SHANNON INTRODUCTION

• CRSP, CHRP

• Over 10 years’ experience in safety and risk

• Developed various safety programs within Toyota SMS and behavior based programs for large employee base

• Consultant in the implementation of OH&S software for various clients across industries


PART 1: WHAT IS SAFETY CULTUREPART 2: WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?PART 3: BUILDING A SAFETY CULTUREPART 4: MEASURING IN MEDGATE


This slide deck forms the basis of a webinar on Safety Culture which you can download and listen to on-demand by following this link: http://www2.medgate.com/safety-culture-webinar-slideshare

http://www2.medgate.com/safety-culture-webinar-slideshare


WHAT IS SAFETY

CULTURE?


WHERE DID THE TERM COME FROM?• The idea of safety culture first

arose in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986

• INSAG’s 1988 described safety culture as: ‘That assembly of characteristics and attitudes in organizations and individuals that, as an overriding priority, nuclear plant safety issues receive the attention warranted by their significance’


DEFINITIONS – UK H&S COMMISSION

• UK Health & Safety Commission:

The product of individual and group values, attitudes, perceptions, competencies, and patterns of behavior that determine the commitment to and the style and proficiency of, an organization’s health & safety management

Source: OSHA Commonly Used Statistics

https://www.osha.gov/oshstats/commonstats.html


DEFINITIONS - OSHA• Safety culture consists of shared beliefs, practices and attitudes that exist

at an establishment. Culture is the atmosphere created by those beliefs, attitudes, etc. which shape our behavior. It includes:

Management and employee norms, assumptions and beliefs

Management and employee attitudes

Values, myths, stories

Policies and procedures

Supervisor priorities, responsibilities and accountability

Production and bottom line pressures vs quality issues

Actions or lack of action to correct unsafe behaviors

Employee training and motivation

Employee involvement or ‘buy-in’


DOES IT MEAN THE SAME TO EVERYONE?

• Organization specific

• Built around the way the company works

• Leadership at all levels important


SAFETY CULTURE DOESN’T MATTER!

• Criticisms

We need a safety culture!

• New catch phrase for executives, but it is not new and can‘t be created out of thin air

• Results in flash-in-the-pan / faddy initiative


SAFETY CULTURE DOESN’T MATTER!

• Culture is not a program

• Attitudes, accountability, leadership and other “soft” concepts cannot be easily measured


SAFETY CULTURE DOES MATTER!

• Improves safety performance

• Identify Hazards more quickly

• Keeps employee safer

• Ultimately, cost savings from reduced turnover & injuries


SAFETY CULTURE DOES MATTER!

• It has been observed by OSHA VPP and independent consultants that:

Strong safety cultures have the single greatest impact on accident reduction of any process.


BUILDING A SAFETY

CULTURE


MAIN COMPONENTS

Commitment

Empowering Behavior

Awareness / Communication

Adaptability

Information / Measurement

Consistency


COMMITMENT• Get buy in from all levels of the organization

(leadership, supervisors, employees)


KEY TO COMMITMENT

• Get buy in for new processes

• Involve all levels early on in decisions

• Explain why involvement of all levels is crucial to success

• Establish safety committees & track engagement

• Create and involve Executive safety champion

• Give People Time to Do Safety in their Job


BEHAVIOR

Part of everyday work at all levels


KEY TO BEHAVIOR

• Integrate safety into operating procedures

• Empowerment

• No Blame – Fix Problems

• Remove fear of discipline

• Proactive indicators - # of spot checks, # of innovative safety ideas, behavioral vs non-behavioral incidents


AWARENESS

• Communicate expectations to employees

Safety programs

How monitored

How to improve

Improvements made

Stats


KEY TO AWARENESS

• Surveys to monitor attitudes and feelings about safety

• Training to increase involvement

• Extend your safety culture to your supply chain and contractors

• Make Safety Visible


ADAPTABILITY

• Incorporate & be prepared for change

Plan

DoAct

Change

Continuous Improvement


KEY TO ADAPTABILITY

• Be willing to find and fix problems

• Celebrate finding a problem instead of hiding it

• Have systems to address change ready


INFORMATION

• You can’t manage what you can’t see

• Safety has to be made visible

• Measure & Monitor


KEY TO INFORMATION SHARING

• Increases accountability – clear indication that the organization cares and is monitoring

• Non-safety employees more likely to feel involved and give their input

• Quicker identification of trends

• Display board/e-dashboard/report cards

• Display stats that reflect your objectives


CONSISTENCY

• Be Persistent

• Play messages like a broken record

• Ensure consistent message at all times

• Be creative


KEY TO CONSISTENCY

• After the initial push, keep showing safety activities every day

• Executive to use safety in all messages even if just a small part

• Keep the effort level up – create a Safety Plan


HOW TO MEASURE IT


BREAKING CULTURE DOWN

• Culture and its characteristics may be difficult to measure, but their outcomes are not

• To improve upon anything, you need to be able to measure where you are now and track



Obvious Indicators

• # of Incidents/Accidents

• Incident Rate

• Lost Time Rates

• OSHA Recordables / Rates



• Monitoring # of unsafe observations and hazards

• Monitoring how quickly Safety Corrective Actions are corrected

• Monitoring how quickly incidents are reported and closed out

• Surveys – to monitor employee attitudes and feelings about safety



• Audit Tool – # of findings from audit

• % of inspections overdue

• Training – Completion Rate

• Incident Rates compared to Industry/Benchmark and trends over time

• Committee Activity – involvement, attendance – are they engaged?


SAFETY CULTURE IN

MEDGATE


HOW CAN A SAFETY SOFTWARE HELP?

Collect comprehensive data

Create an accurate picture of your culture indicators

Build reports broken down by geography

Identify areas for improvement

Communicate to employees


KEYS TO SAFETY CULTURE

• Commitment at all levels – Safety Champions

• Empower good safety Behaviour

• Promote Awareness

• Be adaptable – invite continuous improvement

• Be Consistent in your actions and message

• Monitor and Measure to see trends & indicators


COMMITMENT BEHAVIOR AWARENESS

ADAPTABILITY INFORMATION CONSISTENCY

Business

The Keys to Unlocking Safety Culture