Health & Safety Culture
(A). Introduction
The purpose of this bullettin is to give you a fundamental idea about the subject “ Health and Safety
Culture” and to identify and correct your behaviour, if applicable, to promote a positive Health and Safety
Culture in our organisation. The success or failure of EHS implementation in an organisation depends on the
EHS Culture existing in the organisation. If it is negative, we need to change to positive through our actions in
dealing with each EHS related matters at all levels. The availability of a good EHSMS alone within an
organisation does not guarantee the implementation of the same.
The culture of an organization has been described as the objective characteristics about the way in which it
works-its structure, rules, management style, ethics, attitudes..etc which may be observed from outside. The
Health and Safety culture is recognised as being the single key driver of health and Safety performance. It
reflects people’s belief and attitude towards safety. An organisation’s safety culture is the result of interactions
between their systems, attitudes and perception of Safety
(B) Definition
As per HSG65, the definition of Safety Culture is as follows:
“The product of individual and group values, attitudes, perceptions, competencies and patterns
of behaviour that determine the commitment to, and the style and proficiency of , an
organisation’s health and safety management”.
An organisation’s safety culture has a direct impact on things like:
• The success or failure of health and safety initiatives;
• Whether employees comply with rules and procedures;
• Whether they are prepared to take risks;
• The balance between safety and production.
(C). Safety Culture ( Negative/Positive)
An organisation with a positive health and Safety culture will consist of competent people with strongly-held
values which they put into practice. This will go through the whole organisation-from top to bottom. Thus, it
starts with a firm statement of policy and this policy will be reflected at all levels in both the attitudes of
management and employees, and the working practices and safety measures applied. There will be clear
determination to control hazards and risk, and to make the workplace a safe place for all concerned.
By contrast, where there is a negative safety culture, management and staff are likely to adopt only the
minimum safety arrangement just to comply with the law with the aim of avoiding financial fine/warnings
from govt. authorities ...etc.
A negative effect on health and Safety culture may be seen in two ways.
Managers at different levels will give important to production progress only and downplay safety
considerations.
Workers will loose faith in the protection offered by safety policies and, and view management as
untrustworthy and unethical in its operation. They may also seek advancement and increases in pay
through demonstrating similar values to management, and thus themselves cut corners and take more
risk.
(D) Internal Influence on Health and Safety Culture
There are several factors , internal to the organisation, that influence the Health and Safety culture of an
organisation as well as external factors which is out of the scope of this bulletin.
The following are some of the important points :-
• Management Commitment : The level of commitment to Health and Safety is crucial to the culture of
Health and Safety in the organisation
• Production Demands : Whether the Health and Safety is given enough consideration at the projects or
Are employees allowed to cut corners on health and Safety issues in the project to achieve production
Targets ? The Project Manager has a very big role in this matter.
• The communication : Communications , formal and informal, existing in an organisation has good
impact on safety culture. Whether EHS is addressed in each work related communications/Meetings
...etc ?
• Competence : Whether staff are competent to work safely ? Whether training , appropriate to the
nature of the individual’s health & Safety Role, is provided to the employees?
Now, I am giving below some of the examples which i have observed in some of my previous employment
with another organisation/subcontractors . This is for you to think and analyse whether it is a part of a
negative safety culture or not ?
Visiting of a senior manager ( Example: Project Managers/ any other senior Manager ) to the construction site without wearing hard hat. The rest of his subordinates wear it. Does it not an indicator of Negative Safety Culture ? ( What messagegoes to subordinate’s mind about Health and Safety. Just Think. “Do what i say, not what i do” message is a negative safety culture )
Internal Safety Training ? Yah. It can be conducted, but, only in the rest time/Lunch time of the people, not on duty time.
The reason is that Safety training will interrupt the production progress. Is it a positive sign or Negative sign with regard tohealth and Safety culture? Sure. It is negative. The benefit of Safety Training is not considered here. Also, safety is notconsidered as an integral part of the work, Safety is considered as an unwanted element or just to satisfy somebody.
Safety Implementation ? Yah. We do it. We have safety Plan and Safety Officer. They do it. ? What it indicates ? A NegativeOr positive Safety Culture ? Pls Think.
If the safety is not implemented properly at site, the concerned Manager call the EHS officer and shout him in front of thefrontline
supervisors without asking the frontline supervisors about it. Is it a
part of a positive safety culture ? I can assureyou that Health and Safety will never improve in that organisation till this attitudes are changed/corrected about EHS.
A secret agenda between a manager and his foremen/Engineer to bypass EHS procedure for more production. Is it Positive?
Yes, We have to implement safety in the site to avoid financial fine
from authorities (Municipality, RTA...etc). Is it the main
objectives of implementing safety ? If no fine, no need of safety at site!! Is it right ?
The above are only some of the examples and we can give a lot more. These examples are just for you to think about Health and
Safety Culture .
(D) Conclusion
The promotion of positive Safety culture is a very important subject to look into when we are serious
about safety implementation. A change of safety Culture is possible with everybody’s cooperation and with
strong back up of management. Normally, change of safety culture does not happen very soon as
overcoming of resistance/ Changing of attitude from strong minded persons requires time with
management’s involvement from time to time. Please remember – A wrong thing is wrong thing even if
we have been practicing it in this way since many years.
If the above descriptions are applicable to us, it is the time to think about a change of mindset to develop
a positive culture
(E) Wearing PPE – How to create a Positive culture
Now Let us take the case of wearing PPE at the site. In order to develop a positive culture in this regard,
what are the recommendations. It can be something like below
The Engineers, Managers and Supervision staff to set an example by wearing PPE at the project
Training to the employees- About the benefits of wearing PPE
Consult and communicate with the workforce in the selection of PPE . This can be done through toolbox talk.
Listen to their problems/barriers, if any, to wear PPE and reach to a decision
Motivate the labours to wear PPE by giving safety award and Cash Award to selected labours who wear PPE always
In case a worker does not wear PPE, the supervision staff to take action first and inform safety officer.
Make Available the PPE at the store. No exemption for not wearing PPE at any time. No reasons accepted
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