Safety Culture Change

Safety culture change is the sum of all the activities aimed to reduce risk and subsequent loss at the workplace. It involves upstream activities (before the loss), midstream activities (during the loss), and downstream activities (after the loss). Upstream activities are the most important actions in safety management and involve all the management controls required by a structured SMS. 

Although primarily dealing with safety culture change at workplaces, non-work-related activities are important to the discussion because the work safety culture often rubs off on employees, who tend to take the safety concepts home with them and apply them both at home and at play. Structured SMS should have an element dedicated to off-the-job safety promotion as well. 

Safety authority is the total influence, rights, and ability of the position to conunand and demand safety actions. Management has ultimate safety authority, and therefore is the only echelon that can effectively initiate, implement, and maintain an effective SMS and create safety culture changes. Leadership has the authority to implement and maintain safety, and also the authority to take necessary remedial measures if there are deviations from accepted safety practices and norms. 

Making safety management decisions is when a manager makes a decision based on safety facts presented to him or her. During the process of safety culture change there will be a multiplicity of decisions that need to be made. 

Positive behavior reinforcement is one of the vital ingredients to safety success, especially to safety culture change interventions. Of all the efforts and functions carried out by leadership, positive behavior reinforcanent is likely to have the greatest effect on the success of the safety systan and consequent culture change. 

Acknowledging employees is vital to the success of the system. The power of a small gesture of thanks and recognition cannot be overstated in its importance in bringing about safety culture change. 

Safety departments should be professional. Their responsibility is to advise management and coordinate the activities of an ongoing safety management system. They cannot improve the safety by accepting responsibility for safety. They should not directly try to influence behaviors of employees. Only management can do that. Traditional safety is a thing of the past. New approaches are needed by safety staff if they are to assist in the safety culture change process. 

In implementing safety culture change management one should also focus on those safety activities (elements) that have the potential to bring about the biggest culture change with the least amount of effort. 

Numerous safety elements help control both the behavior of people at work and the work environment and procedures. No hard-and-fast dividing line can be drawn between elements defining them as either behavior or environmental control. One influences the other. All elements are mini safety culture change interventions and demand certain actions and performances that eventually create behavior and conditions that equate to an ongoing safety culture. 

The safety aspects of management are a vital part of creating safety culture change, and the safety management system (SMS) is the vehicle for the change. Safety management can be summarized as follows ... 

The following principles indicate the importance of management s role in safety culture change. The implementation of an SMS must have the full support of the executive management and must be driven by management at all levels. Management must also set the example, and as leaders, participate in the safety management system. 

Since the SMS is management driven, these basic safety management principles are vital for the implementation and maintenance of the system, without which safety culture change would be almost impossible. 

Safety systan snccesses can be publicized via the weekly safety newsletta, internal email, or be posted on the company s internal website and on the safety notice boards. The more safety conunnnication that takes place during a safety culture change intervention, the better. 

Historic practices of calling safety professionals safety officers should be changed, as should their roles. They are safety advisors because of the role they play and should not be portrayed as punishers or enforcers. If safety staff believe that employees actions are the only cause of accidents and are intent on focusing on the fault of persons only, this mind-set should be changed as part of the safety culture change. 

Safety objectives must be set, and people must know what their authority within the safety management system is. Ownership of a segment of the safety system can help lead to participation and safety success. All employees, irrespective of their standing, should be given the ability (authority) to participate actively in the safety management system. This participation is a key component of safety culture change. 

The introduction and maintenance of a structured safety system will lead to a safety culture change within the organization. If one considers the effort, commitment, and change to the way safety is normally managed in a plant, the safety system will bring about a culture change. It will force leadership to become leaders and to create a positive environment where employees can feel comfortable participating in the safety activities. 

No safety management principle is more applicable to safety culture change than the principle of application. The more the safety culture is affected by the safety system interactions, the more it will be understood, accepted, and practiced. 

For a safety culture change intervention to be successful, there must be a climate of trust between employees and management. This includes declaring a truce and moving the focus away from injury blame fixing and fault finding to a safe space where injuries can be reported without fear of reprimand—a space where employees safety concerns can be freely expressed. This amnesty is the only way to create a climate in which old embedded safety habits and beliefs can change. 

The leadership team should be trained in modern safety management techniques before they embark on the safety culture change process. If they start out on the... 

The key factor in safety and safety culture change is management leadership. The SMS must be initiated and supported by senior management as well as line and frontline management. Dr. Mark A. Friend (1997) says Only members of the management team can create or change the environment. (And it is, after all, their job to do so.) (p. 34). 

One of the principles of culture change, discussed by John R. Childress (2009), is pertinent to safety culture change, and that is to start at the top. 

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