SAFETY CULTURE

WHAT IS SAFETY CULTURE?

The safety culture of an organisation “lives” in the perceptions, thinking and beliefs of employees and can be defined as the collective habits of work.

A key principle in our culture-shaping approach is the understanding that the most significant “influencer” of employee behaviour, is the behaviour and practice of his or her boss – the leadership (supervisors, middle managers, senior managers and executive management) – collectively defining the prevailing workplace culture.

Research suggests that it is not as simple as “employees must change their behaviour”. Most risk-taking is a consequence of existing systems, work practices, processes and from a perception of what is expected and “permissible”. Together these elements describe the culture of an organisation.

This is the “work environment” of employees and it has a profound influence on risk-taking. The “leaders” in the business can and should reinforce or shape their safety culture – to cultivate an environment of safe production and high performance.

WE SHAPE A CULTURE OF SAFETY USING BOTH QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE METHODS

The safety culture of an organisation is assessed in terms of three properties namely, the

• • • Strength – indicated by the degree of alignment to critical safety culture elements.
    • Maturity – determined by the consistency and extent to which the organisation has advanced beyond a “reactive” approach and more towards an “interdependent” approach to safety.
    • Capacity – expressed in the ability of the organisation to actively innovate and learn.

Using these measures, we are able to articulate the underlying drivers and characteristics of the prevailing safety culture. Given this understanding, we craft an informed targeted response to cultivating an optimal safety culture.