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What is a Safe Workplace Culture
Let’s start by defining what is a Safe Workplace Culture. This term describes the attitudes, behaviours, and mindsets of workers, supervisors, managers, and all the stakeholders toward safety in the work environment.
Businesses have different levels of maturity on their safety culture and this relates to the meaning and the
importance of safety in a workplace. If safety is considered a “compliance issue”, an “obligation to endure”, training will be boring, requirements of safety would become incomprehensible or impossible to achieve and what is more, injuries and accidents are prone to happen.
How to create a culture of safety in your business
So, how create a culture of safety that can be useful for your organization? And, how you can keep Safety top of mind?
While creating a positive safety and healthy culture at work may seem difficult, there are steps you can take towards developing it in a way that can be achievable.
Here are 5 things you can do to develop and foster a safe culture in your workplace:
State the company’s views on safety and communicate clearly what actions will be accepted, tolerated, or punished. This will give the members of the organisation an understanding of the business’s culture and the place that safety has within it.
Good safety culture starts with management. Lead by example, use protective gear, participate in training, and
recognize and encourage safety behaviours within the company.
Remember that for these tools to be effective, they need to go beyond the prevention of accidents and injuries, but also look at the way work is performed.
Also, seeking the inclusion of employees in creating safety resources will increase hazard/risks awareness and
preventive behaviours.
Make sure to create visual reminders and display them in common areas so it is available to everyone.
Consider using a safety management system such as Safety On.
Adequate equipment at work ensures safety and efficiency on the tasks at hand.
Regular hands-on training is crucial to maintaining and developing a safety culture in your organisation.
Opportunities of learning will reduce accidents and improve culture. Furthermore, training with co-workers are
valuable team-building exercises that propagate engagement.
Develop a system for open communication across your organisation so employees can be informed of new procedures or policies and be confident they can raise safety concerns and issues without repercussions.
Encourage dialogue about Safety among staff and use key moments, such as induction or training to discuss topics with examples. Think of those as opportunities to improve safety and as a team bonding exercise.
Building a safe culture at work is an ongoing process. Establishing a safe culture at work requires constantly and frequently conducting risk assessments, investigating all incidents and near misses, examining the root cause, and seeking feedback from staff about the effectiveness of procedures. That regularity gives the opportunity to review and modify policies that may be stop been useful or need to be updated.
Committing to constant growth and putting in place systems for continuous improvement ensures your organisation will not remain stagnant in its safety performance but continue to strive for an injury- and accident-free work environment.
Benefits of a Safety Culture at work
Safe workplace culture is essential for your company’s performance and should be part of the organisation’s core
values.
Other proven benefits of workplace safety culture include:
- Increased employee productivity
- High employee engagement
- Lower staff turn over
- Decreased rates of injury or accident
Useful Resources
There are many available resources to get you started. Here are some useful links you can tap on:
- Safe Work Australia has many resources and publications to get you started Welcome | Safe Work Australia
- Health and Safety Handbooksinclude many only resources from checklists to templates and policies Health & Safety Handbook
- Workplace Health and Safety Queensland have practical guides to health and safety laws WorkSafe.qld.gov.au
- First Aid Kits Australia. Here you can find useful information about First Aid Kits for businesses and blogs covering First Aid topics. First Aid Kits Australia
- Subscribe to First Aid Kits Australia’s First Aid Tips. Each month we share a new tip which you can share with your team – Learn More.
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