Workplace Safety Culture

RSS

The National Safety Council presented the 2018 Robert W. Campbell Award to The Boeing Company at the NSC Congress & Expo. Campbell Award winners are an elite group of organizations that have successfully integrated environmental, health and safety (EHS) management with business operations as a cornerstone of corporate excellence.

Establishing a safe workplace requires more than PPE and policy. Training and performance management are critical, but only go so far, and all the visual cues, scrolling monitors and pithy slogans in the world won’t make your workplace sustainably safe and healthy.

What I call a “True North Safety Culture” is the point at which an organization aligns to a value and goal of eliminating risk(s)/injuries within an organization, and also aligns mission/vision statements to this goal.

Behavior-based coaching is essential for any mission to keep people safe. It’s human nature to get distracted or complacent on the job, and to deviate from performing the prescribed safe operating procedure (SOP).

Employees have come to expect to be rewarded for a variety of professional achievements or practices, including safety and industrial hygiene. In fact, 79 percent of employees want rewards programs, and 73 percent think rewards encourage engagement, according to research.

The term “Safety culture” has become like the term “engagement” in popular management writings. There is no common agreement on the term. We are left with (mis)interpretations of terms like “safety culture,” which lead to haphazard attempts at changing organizations toward improvement.

Most organizational leaders are relatively clear about what they desire from their safety staff, but shouldn’t these same leaders ask what’s needed of them to achieve ongoing EHS success?

Despite its seriousness, sexual harassment prevention training inspires entire (albeit, tongue-in-cheek) episodes in popular American television shows, including The Office and NCIS, and memorable skits in many other venues, including Saturday Night Live. With all of this attention, it is easy to believe that sexual harassment prevention training is no longer needed.