The Four Pillars Of A Supportive Safety Culture

Today there is a widely-held belief that a company’s safety culture has a critical influence on the safety outcomes in that setting. Safety leaders frequently tell stakeholders that safety culture is a prerequisite for supporting safe operating practices and outcomes. The organizations with supportive safety cultures tend to take a long-term perspective when managing both safety and operations and recognize safety improvement as an economic and competitive opportunity, not as a cost or threat. One way of changing an organization’s safety culture is by influencing the safety values that workers see in practice. Here are the four most important values that go into creating a supportive safety culture.

COMMITMENT

Safety is the first priority at all times, not just when it’s convenient. Safety is an integral part of operations and a core value for employees.

You can see this value in action when:

• Safety and operating outcomes are good
• Sufficient resources go toward creating and maintaining a safe working environment
• Safety is non-negotiable
• Safety is a consideration when making business decisions

DISCIPLINE

All work is disciplined and guided by formal processes. Workers and managers don’t cut corners or bend the rules to save time.

You can see this value in action when:

• Standard operating procedures are followed carefully
• Safety is part of being productive
• Safety is interwoven or integrated into operating procedural steps, not in a separate manual that sits on the shelf until things going wrong

PARTICIPATION

Workers are engaged as active stakeholders, rather than passive participants in a management system. Their engagement allows safety management to become a competitive advantage for the organization.

You can see this value in action when:

• Employee engagement in decision-making is valued
• People have autonomy to do their job
• Management demonstrates trust and transparency to workers
• Workers help manage their own work and safety