For more than 20 years, our organization, Safety Performance Solutions (SPS), has provided safety culture training and assessment for hundreds of companies worldwide. During this time, we’ve heard many positive and negative comments from employees about how organizational safety is managed. This article highlights these opinions from several sources, including:
In most organizations employees appreciate management efforts to improve safety and perceptions of management support for safety have improved over the years. This is reflected in the norms (or averages) from the results of our safety culture survey. In 2008, 73% of respondents agreed with the item, “Site management seems genuinely interested in reducing injuries.” Ten years later, that percentage has increased to 81%. Although most employees believe organizational safety is improving, they still have suggestions for further improvement. This article summarizes ten key issues revealed in employee surveys and interpersonal discussions.