How to promote a safety culture at work
What is a ‘safety culture’ and how can you create one to ensure a safe and compliant workforce? Find out below:
What is a ‘safety culture’?
Well, generic workplace culture is described by the Management Study Guide as a concept which deals with beliefs, thought processes and attitudes of the employees. It also looks at the ideologies and principles of the organisation.
When we apply a safety culture to this, it would imply that all staff have to believe in safety principles and practices for the business. All employees should have a ‘safety first’ attitude and really believe in the importance of safety. It’s not enough to enforce policies, procedures and provide the right safety equipment, you need to change attitudes.
Ramp up your communications
You need to make sure that you are regularly communicating health and safety policies or procedures. Send out updates in your news bulletin on your employee app, through emails or even just printed on posters around the workplace. Print out small laminated cards and keep them in popular communal areas where staff will need them the most. Send alerts or notifications to remind your staff of policies or procedures during appropriate time periods. For example, during the ‘Summer Sale Store Redesign’ period, reinforce the manual handling policy.
Dig deeper into any accidents or issues that occur
Accidents or issues are a great opportunity for you to identify problems and prevent them from happening again. Whenever an accident happens you should always investigate it so that you can improve your process for the future. In order to fully investigate you need to ask:
What happened?
Who was involved?
What equipment was being used at the time?
Were procedures being followed at the time and, if so, copies of those procedures should be looked at?
What was the injured person actually doing at the time of the accident and immediately before the accident?
How did the injury occur?
Were any first aid measures taken and, if so, by whom?
Who was the site supervisor?
Were there any witnesses?
What personal protective equipment was being worn at the time of the accident?
What was the sequence of events that led up to the accident?
Share your findings with other teams and departments so that they can supply the right information, equipment and processes to prevent the accident from happening again. Oplift’s digital reports allows you to capture insights quickly and easily and add photos or comments all from our mobile app. Simply tap and send. It automatically creates easy to read, filterable reports from all of your captured insights so you can easily view the results.
Regularly carry out checks
By keeping a record of all activities and tasks which can pose a risk or threat, you will be able to spot patterns or trends which could create unsafe working conditions. For example, if you have a digital checklist which staff have to use every time they dispose of hazardous waste you might notice that they are not doing it as regularly as they should. Or perhaps a lot of teams aren’t doing it in the evening because their shifts are overrunning. Oplift’s digital checklists allow you to create and schedule speedy checks that are always tracked. Employees can simply mark yes or no and leave comments where required. Any checks not done are immediately flagged to management.
Improve your health and safety training
Training is essential if you want to create a ‘safety culture’ at work. It means employees will be safer and you won’t be held liable for accidents but it is crucial to have the right training for your employees. A 30-minute course which has to be taught in a classroom or on a desktop computer is not going to be suitable for everyone. This is especially true if you have a lot of non-desk workers who are extremely time-poor.
Microlearning allows you to deliver and train employees in just 5 minutes. The employee will learn information at a point of need (so when they need help at a specific time). This is perfect for employees who are always on the go but who need to be the most diligent with their health and safety knowledge.
Include safety markers in your employee reviews
To make sure that your staff are always putting safety first when you carry out staff performance reviews you should include safety markers. This ensures that everyone always acts in accordance with your health and safety regulations. For example, if you are assessing a sales assistant, don’t just look at their performance or behaviours with customers. Assess whether they are loading boxes away in the stock room with the correct procedure to avoid injury.
If you are looking for an all-encompassing health and safety platform that makes it effortless to keep your workforce safe and compliant. Discover Oplift, get in contact and find out how we can tailor a solution for you.
