safety culture as a corporate aim

Improving Safety Culture

Douglas Borough Council

Introduction


In order for Douglas Borough Council to advance in Health & Safety it is vital that work is carried out to improve the Health & Safety Culture within the organisation. This presentation is the first step towards achieving this.

Benefits


A positive health and safety culture has benefits to the organisation as a whole.

It will in time provide cost saving in several areas.

The model we are going to look at, is not just a health and safety model, but a good business model.

Reduction is lost time


If Douglas Borough Council were to completely eradicate sickness/lost time it would financially be the equivalent of 10 manual workers pay for a whole year.

In the current economic downturn would it not be an opportunity to embrace this concept and reap the rewards?

Where do we start


Well the good news is we have already begun.

We have taken a snap shot of the organisations perception of health and safety culture.

This has given us a benchmark of were we are today.


InvolvingLevel 3

ManagingLevel 2

CooperatingLevel 4

EmergingLevel 1

ContinuallyImproving

Level 5

DevelopManagementCommitment

Realise the importance of frontline staff and develop personal responsibility

Engage all staff to develop cooperation and commitment to improving safety

Develop consistency and fight complacency

© The Keil Centre, 1999

Safety Culture Maturity

Level One: Emerging Safety is defined in terms of technical and

procedural solutions and compliance with regulations.

Safety is not seen as a key business risk and the safety department is perceived to have primary responsibility for safety.

Many accidents are seen as unavoidable and as part of the job.

Most frontline staff are uninterested in safety and may only use safety as the basis for other arguments, such as changes in shift systems.


Level Two: Managing The organisation’s accident rate is average

for its industrial sector but it tends to have more serious accidents than average.

Safety is seen as a business risk and management time and effort is put into accident prevention.

Safety is solely defined in terms of adherence to rules and procedures and engineering controls.

Accidents are seen as preventable.


Level Two: Managing cont………. Managers perceive that the majority of

accidents are solely caused by the unsafe behaviour of front-line staff.

Safety performance is measured in terms of lagging indicators such as lost time injurys (LTI) and safety incentives are based on reduced LTI rates.

Senior managers are reactive in their involvement in health and safety (i.e. they use punishment when accident rates increase).


Level Three: Involving Accident rates are relatively low, but they

have reached a plateau. The organisation is convinced that the

involvement of the frontline employee in health and safety is critical, if future improvements are going to be achieved.

Managers recognise that a wide range of factors cause accidents and the root causes often originate from management decisions.


Level Three: Involving cont……….. A significant proportion of frontline

employees are willing to work with management to improve health and safety.

The majority of staff have a realisation of their personal responsibility for their own health and safety.

Safety performance is actively monitored and the data is used effectively.


Level Four: Cooperating The majority of staff in the organisation

are convinced that health and safety is important from both a moral and economic point of view.

Managers and frontline staff recognise that a wide range of factors cause accidents and the root causes are likely to come back to management decisions.

Frontline staff accept personal responsibility for their own and others health and safety.


Level Four: Cooperating cont…….. The importance of all employees feeling

valued and treated fairly is recognised. The organisation puts significant effort

into proactive measures to prevent accidents.

Safety performance is actively monitored using all data available.

Non-work accidents are also monitored and a healthy lifestyle is promoted.


Level Five: Continued Improvement The prevention of all injuries or harm to

employees (both at work and at home) is a core company value.

The organisation has had a sustained period (years) without a recordable accident or high potential incident, but there is no feeling of complacency.

It live with the paranoia that it’s next accident is just around the corner.

The organisation uses a range of indicators to monitor performance but it is not performance-driven, as it has confidence in its safety processes.


Level Five: Continued Improvement cont. The organisation is constantly striving to

be better and find better ways of improving hazard control mechanisms.

All employees share the belief that health and safety is a critical aspect of their job and accept that the prevention of non-work injuries is important.

The company invests considerable effort in promoting health and safety at home.


How do we achieve this?


Plan Do Check Act

Plan •Identify key problem areas or issues for human factors in your workplace (talk to staff and their representatives, look at accident and near miss reports, look at risk assessments);Prioritise these issues;Allocate resources;Identify expertise;Develop possible solutions or actions plans (consider people, their tasks, the work environment and organisational attributes); andEncourage staff and other people with a stake in the change to participate and solution development.

Do •Raise awareness of the issues and gain acceptance for change;Implement solutions;Involve staff and their representatives; andCommunicate about the actions and successes

Check Evaluate the effectiveness of actions by asking for the options of staff and their representatives;Check relevant data sources; andObserve relevant activities.

Act •If the situation is not satisfactory then identify possible reasons;Identify alternative steps; andEncourage participation to solve the situation.

ExampleKey issues include;

Communication Cooperation between Management and Staff Active Monitoring ie;

— Near miss reporting— No injury accident reporting

Information, Instruction, Training & Supervision Reactive Monitoring Review


Senior Management commitment is crucial to a positive health and safety culture.

This commitment produces higher levels of motivation and concern for health and safety throughout the organisation.

It is best indicated by the proportion of resources (time, money, people) and support allocated to health and safety management and by the status given to health and safety.

The active involvement of senior management in the health and safety system is very important.

Managers need to be seen to lead by example when it comes to health and safety.


Management style is influential. A ‘humanistic’ approach to management

involving more regard by managers for individuals’ personal and work problems is likely to be effective.

This assumes direct and rapid action to identify and resolve individual problems in an appropriately caring and concerned manner.


Visible management is very important for a health and safety culture.

Good managers appear regularly on the ‘shop floor’ and talk about health and safety.

Staff need to believe that all their managers are committed to health and safety.


Good communications between all levels of employee.

An ‘open door’ policy may be helpful with direct access to the management hierarchy where appropriate.

In a positive culture questions about health and safety should be part of everyday work conversations.

This flows from ownership - the encouragement of personal responsibility and participation by everyone in health and safety measures.


A balance of health and safety and production goals.

People may believe that high standards of health and safety inevitably mean slower work rates.

In contrast, production may be seen to be increased through ‘cutting corners’.

Excessive production pressure creates an atmosphere of distraction and a shortage of time which makes human errors more likely.


Excessive pressure may give rise to physical or mental health effects in some employees, and to a higher rate of ‘violations’ of health and safety rules.

In a positive culture health and safety is regarded as important, is promoted, and is not compromised.


The Ten Elements Management commitment and visibility Communication Productivity versus safety Learning organisation Safety resources Participation Shared perceptions about safety Trust Industrial relations and job satisfaction Training


Questions

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