Step Up to Safety – 7 Steps to improving the safety culture in your workplace
Links between leadership, organisational culture and safety in the workplace
A joint Deacons -The Pacific Institute (TPI) Seminar
1 July 2008
Royal Perth Yacht Club
Australia 11 Drive
Matilda Bay
CRAWLEY WA
Background
The Australian Safety and Compensation Council (ASCC) has released the Annual Compendium of Worker’s Compensation Statistics 2006-07 report (11 March 2009).
The data shows some 236 compensated fatalities and 132,055 serious workers’ compensation claims in Australia the 2006-07 financial year.
The impacts on employee and community well-being and morale, productivity and on the health and insurance systems is immense.
The manufacturing industry recorded the highest incidence/claim rates per 1 000 employees (27.5) followed by transport and storage (25.9), agriculture, forestry and fishing (25.3) and construction (22.1).
The strong correlation between the leadership and culture of an organisation and safety in its workplace formed the focus of a joint Deacons -The Pacific Institute (TPI) breakfast seminar held at the Royal Perth Yacht Club Crawley Western Australia.
Around 150 participants from the private, government and community sectors attended the free seminar which featured:
- completion by participants on arrival of a self-scoring Organisational Cultural Inventory® (OCI)(Human Synergistics International);
- a definition of a safety culture’’ and an overview of the maturity of organisational behaviours in a safety culture by Ms Maria Saraceni, Partner Deacons;
- presentation from Mr Brian Cook Director Professional Services The Pacific Institute on organisational cultural styles and the evidence of the perceived employee links between culture and safety;
- participant round-table workshop on the outcomes of the OCI exercise; and
- expert panel giving their perspectives on safety in the workplace comprising (Ms Nina Lyhne Commissioner WorkSafe, Mr Stan Sexton Corporate Manager - Safety, Public Transport Authority, Ms Maria Saraceni and Mr Brian Cook. Questions directed to the panel were fielded from the floor.
Legal Update emerging from the seminar compiled by Maria Saraceni Partner Deacons
Step Up to Safety – 7 Steps to improving the safety culture in your workplace
The seminar conjointly run by Deacons and the Pacific Institute opened the way for participants to reflect and seize on the tools highlighted to assist employers and employees to “step up to safety” by developing, maintaining and improving upon their respective safety cultures.
A ‘safety culture’ refers to the collective values and attitudes of people in an organisation.
It is more than merely good systems.
It is the way an organisation lives or acts out those systems.
It is the shared values and beliefs that guide the thinking, the behaviours, and the decision-making within an organisation.
Why is a “safety culture” important?
Briefly because it forms the context within which individual safety attitudes develop and persist and safety behaviours are promoted.
Many organisations have, or are striving to achieve, safety compliance-oriented systems in place which require employees to maintain workplace safety by adhering to standardised work procedures and wearing personal protective clothing and using personal protective equipment.
However, experience has shown that notwithstanding such a safety compliance approach, incidents do occur.
An almost automaton obedience of policy and procedures provided from “up high” achieves limited safety results.
Perhaps moving to a culture where engaging employees in behaviour or activities which are not compulsory but are entered into voluntarily with a view to developing a working environment that supports safety as opposed to directly contributing to an individual’s personal safety (e.g. undertaking safety observations of peers) may achieve more.
The latter is what we mean by ‘safety culture’.
The Safety Psychologist, David Broadbent, expresses the view that “building a strong safety culture is a specific challenge of leadership…(It) is one that is widely shared and based on a common and well-understood identity… (It) is becoming more and more recognised as a fundamental foundation of effective and sustained safety outcomes… Optimal Safety Cultures typically provide the necessary support for employees to strive beyond minimal efforts.”
(D.G. Broadbent; Leading your Safety Culture toward Best Practice, paper presented at Safety in Action Conference in Melbourne, May 2006).
Brian Cook, Director of Professional Services The Pacific Institute outlined in the seminar the 7 steps it saw as necessary to improve the safety culture at a workplace:
- Measure culture and leadership regularly;
- Establish a guiding coalition to recommend strategies for improvement;
- Undertake a review of key ‘causal factors’;
- Consistently communicate urgency;
- Develop leadership skills;
- Reward “leadership”; and
- Foster personal mastery
Tools to support a senior management team are available to assist in improving a ‘Safety Culture’.
WorkSafe WA Commissioner, Nina Lyhne comments that “…achieving a safety culture is dependent on the total commitment of senior management. It needs to become an integral part of every decision made in an organisation – from procurement, buying new plant, inducting new staff through to designing work systems.”
Stan Sexton, Corporate Manager – Safety at the Public Transport Authority, comments that: “The (recent) workshop certainly pointed the way forward and identified the importance of organisation culture and its development, especially with regard to pro-active safety and risk management programes.
In the future, I would recommend reinforcing the formula by giving pragmatic guidance to safety managers/professionals by providing templates/programmes that they will be able to use in their respective organisations.”
Maria Saraceni, Partner at Deacons, says that organisations with an effective safety culture already exist. “They have demonstrable commitment from all levels, starting with the controlling minds of an organisation. Safety and health is not treated merely as a necessary compliance costing money, but an investment for the people capital of an organisation.
To achieve this, continuous improvement is required and the working environment needs to be blame-free for non-compliances. It’s all about how to do things better and with better safety outcomes.”
Brian Cook, Director of Professional Services at the Pacific Institute, says that “The evidence is clear, culture is a significant factor in successfully establishing a strong safety-oriented organisation.
While developing a more constructive culture does not in itself guarantee a safety culture, it creates the right environment where safety initiatives have the very best chance of being successful.
Constructive cultures take a longer term perspective on success and value people as the means for improving performance, including safety performance.
They are inclusive and believe in treating people with respect and dignity. Cultures that dictate from up high hope problems will solve themselves and where people are encouraged to treat rules and procedures as ‘cast in stone’ (defensive cultures) are unlikely to embrace safety initiatives or any change effectively.”
For more information or to arrange an interview to develop strategies to help improve your organisation’s safety culture, please contact either Maria Saraceni at maria.saraceni@deacons.com.au or Brian Cook at bcook@pacificinstitute.com.au
