Safe practices Culture - A Valuable Methodology or Blame Avoidance

So safety culture. A phrase that seems to creep into nearly every discussion on safety these days - the question is do we actually know very well what it means or has it turn into a rainbow statement with little real value or meaning.

The idea or Organisational Cultures within psychology includes a long history and evidence shows the "culture" will always exist at work - there might be variations on that culture, but we can choose strong consistent themes in most successful companies. Now for most companies the culture differs and how people view the planet differs influenced by status. How  https://squareblogs.net/iciclepin0/osha-safety-training-guideline  struggle along with management believing a very important factor and those at the sharp end having somewhat different views.

There are plenty of definitions of Culture - but in a way I've always liked the simplicity of "the way we do things here". In a way that summarises everything we need to know - successful companies generally have broadly shared views on what things are done within a company underpinned by way of a shared belief. Most likely the best modern examples being Google and Apple - both have strong messages, brand identity and company values are largely shared throughout the company.

Taking it one step further we also know that "belief" and behaviour are linked - a solid culture requiring both align therefore the belief in the culture in turn is shown by behaviours based on the company's method of doing things.

Historically there was a belief that if you changed belief it could subsequently change behaviour - effectively train your staff and they're going to suddenly believe in the company message and then they'll behave in the "required" manner. Pity it isn't really true.

We can say for certain that no-one can exist when their beliefs don't match with their behaviour - something always gives. The problem with attempting to train belief and values is aside from they tend to be deeper rooted than training will ever reach is that even though the course works and the learners adopt a number of the message in the classroom real life interferes - pressure to provide results, peer group pressure, other sources just like the press or contradictory messages within the business will rapidly wipe out any gains you did achieve.

A method shown to be more effective would be to your investment push concept - (change belief and behaviour will observe) and think about the idea of pulling behaviour forward and dragging belief kicking and screaming behind.

In some ways that is almost returning to old fashioned values - strong supervision was always about controlling behaviours. However you can find other monitoring tools that work - be it productivity wall charts with clear targets, response time targets in call centres or returning to the initial message safety performance inspections.

When groups are monitored and ranked on real measurable outcomes most of the time people react by wanting to improve - add bonus payments in and boy do they react.

Now many older schemes based themselves around individual targets -which works for sales - but one interesting factor is that whenever groups are measured and ranked as a whole the stronger (or arguably more compliant) members of the group will exert peer pressure on the colleagues to conform and therefore improve the score (and rewards) for the group as a whole.

When "Safety Culture" was first mooted back the 1990's it had been based around similar concepts:

You will need a strong group of shared beliefs regarding safe working

You can monitor behaviour in relation to indicators of safety - do people wear PPE, do people use guards, do people clean up as required, do people follow rules.
If you can monitor it - you can score it and thus it is possible to set targets
If set targets and publicly display performance you will drive behaviour
If you drive behaviour to where you want it peoples beliefs must follow (it's either share the belief, quit or go mad - & most people take the first option).

Now it works - the same as using targets to operate a vehicle sales or productivity - you can change behaviour and therefore beliefs with regards safety - so effectively you've got a concept of safety culture and a way of defining that culture within an organisation. There are several big buts though:

The company will need to have all of the basics of workplace safety set up first - there must be adequate training to accomplish the job safely, the workplace must be safe, equipment must be safe and jobs should be designed to be achieved safely.
The company needs good safeness performance set up and effectively managed.
Senior management and down through line managers must share the vision and make sure they stick to message at all times. Shouting safety is important monthly at team meetings and then spending the next four weeks screaming profit no matter what is commonly a mixed message and safety is viewed as an afterthought - and the monthly message is ignored as lip service.

So safety culture can in place be accepted as a sub group of the company's overall culture - and it can be manipulated by carrot and stick methods with regards behaviour at work and thus beliefs will observe and in time behaviours will become automatic and new staff will quickly adopt that belief to squeeze in and conform.

Another aspect safety culture programmes were designed to "fix" is the idea of safety violations. A violation is whenever we knowingly do things wrong - speeding on a motorway is the common everyday example (you don't mistakenly drive at 80mph for 100 miles). Violations occur for various reasons but often they have positive intentions - save time, increase productivity, participate in the peer group - or exist simply because the rules are but impossible to follow in real life. But even in this sphere you need the fundamentals right - you will need rules that can be followed, you will need rules that match other demands on the staff/company and you also all need to agree the values aimed for.

Brilliant. Ah but...
That's where it started to go wrong. Like so a lot of things "safety culture" became a buzzword and very quickly became devalued to the point to become near meaningless. Oftentimes "safety culture" is quoted out of context - just as bad it's quoted as an entirely positive concept. Ask people to explain what their safety culture is today and a string of verbage with little substance follows -or scarily we forget 40 years research in psychology and stress that safety culture is attained by training.

The other side that's become apparent in recent times and drawn criticism from Unions especially is that it is being used to step back in its history. Safety culture and management of this culture came about to greatly help companies with strong safety performance take it to the next level - but without the basics of safe workplaces and strong management most of us knew it had been doomed.

Unfortunately that message appears to have gotten lost - suddenly together with the meaningless mantra of safety is everyone's business (no really... wow... erm but who's actually responsible?) safety culture is frequently used to pretend safety is purely right down to the shop floor and move responsibility away from management (well move in peoples minds or even reality). It's an easy sell unfortunately - we'd all like safety to be somebody else's problem.

Where a company has problems with safety performance the first question should be the old faithfuls of:

Have you actually got an insurance plan and risk assessments that define how a job ought to be done?
Are those rules actually achievable or are they pious and unachievable in real life
May be the workplace safe, is equipment safe, have you trained visitors to do their jobs and can you supervise them?
Do management buy into safety as a positive thing and actively manage safety?
Do you actually measure and monitor safety?

All to often companies are leaping into safety culture programmes based purely on "safety is everyone's business" and hoping that in doing this they shift the legal burdens. It generally does not even achieve that aside from actually change the truth.

So before hanging out and money on safety culture programmes:

Don't believe safety culture means a completely positive thing - it's the values people put on safety at work. Rubbish everywhere, poor working practices still denote a safety culture - it's not the culture you need.
Don't think that safety culture programmes will fix the basics - the fundamentals come first and can prevent any organisational change in belief or behaviour.
Ensure that your systems are realistic and achievable.
Make sure management buy into safety as a positive thing and agree the behaviours you wish to mould.
Think that telling everyone safety is everyone's business changes how the courts view safety responsibility and it'll be embarrassing when a claim comes in.
Safety is everyone's business is really a meaningless statement.  Rope Access Specialists Romford  but does not have any value - safety is managements problem in the eyes of regulations and all cultures have leaders - if management don't share exactly the same aims they need imposing on the shop floor then you're attracting two directions and can fail.
Get those right and you may have the opportunity. But have problems with the old fashioned boring bits of safety or think you're moving responsibility from management to the shop floor then you'll fail.

Now I know I seem very negative - I'm not - I simply see something losing all value once we fail to know very well what the term means and turn to programmes that promise to provide "improvements" with no concept of the foundations which are required.

If you're considering a safety culture programme ask the questions above - so when talking to consultants and advisors see who discusses whats already set up. But golden rule should be get the basics right and your culture will largely follow anyway - but once you've the got the fundamentals right cultural change programmes will allow you to take the final steps to better safety.