According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), developing a strong safety culture has the single greatest impact on accident reduction of any workplace practice. That is why this in your workplace should always be a top priority for managers and supervisors in your organization.
What is a Safety Culture?
A safety culture consists of shared beliefs, practices and mindsets that exist at an organization and form an atmosphere of attitudes that shape behavior in a positive way. An organization’s safety culture is a direct result of the following factors:
- Management and employee norms, assumptions and beliefs
- Management and employee attitudes
- Values, myths and stories
- Policies and procedures
- Supervisor priorities, responsibilities and accountability
- Production and bottom-line pressure versus quality issues
- Actions, or lack thereof, to correct unsafe behaviors
- Employee training and motivation
- Employee involvement and buy-in to the process
Four simple steps will ensure this type of work environment. Making these changes will save you money and increase your staff’s productivity:
- Total management buy-in and leadership. Without the top brass believing in safety, there will be no employee involvement. That’s up to you.
- Complete a worksite analysis. BCN Services can perform such an analysis free of charge at your place of business that will establish a baseline and allow you to measure future improvements.
- Hazard prevention and control. BCN Services will help you identify hazards that may be corrected in one of three ways: Engineering controls, administrative controls or the use of personal protective equipment.
- Ongoing, individualized training. BCN Services has more than 250 on-line safety courses available to you, covering a vast range of industries, environments, topics, and issues that are all OSHA compliant. We will design and create a specialized library of online courses just for you at no charge.
Please contract Patrick Boeheim at 800-891-9911, ext. 108, to arrange a time for a productive and informative “safety walk-through.” We are excited to show you the special services available. At BCN Services, we are here to support your efforts at starting and maintaining a strong safety culture.
Patrick Boeheim, Risk Manager