Embedding a Safety Culture by David Bennion of DGB Health and Safety Ltd. This presentation considers factor that contribute to a good safety culture within a business.

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David Bennion
BSc(Hons); Tech IOSH; SIIRSM RSP; ACIEH;
DipEnvNEBOSH MInstLM; CIHM; AMIIAI
HSEQ Professional/Director
Embedding a Safety Culture?
DGB Health and Safety Ltd (Est 2016)

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At the heart of an efficient and profitable business providing
quality services or products is a clearly defined business
model with clear reporting lines and a clear brief.
Within a successful business model embedded is a safety
culture at all levels of the workforce from the CEO through to
the general staff. Those in the most senior position must lead
by example.

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Failure to effectively manage health and safety has a serious impact
on any business operational effectiveness.
• Relaxing of safe working
• Poor quality safety training or not seen as a priority
• Near Miss recording is missed and not deemed relevant
• Accident or incident rates increase
• Moral of workforce drops and some people leave
• Senior Management do not lead by example
• Lack of meaningful safety tours and audits
• Workers are not effectively consulted on safety matters
• Production becomes King and safety secondary.
• Safety violations become acceptable normal working practice.

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Consultation with workers is a key component in embedding a
safety culture. Consultation can be both formal and informal
however by consulting the workforce you get a better
understanding of the challenges which workers face and with
their knowledge of the process together you can arrive at a safe
and efficient way to manage health and safety. You also have a
greater buy in from employees and ownership of the process.
In the next two slides we will consider both formal and informal
consultation

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Formal Consultation:
• Through training and development of staff skills which are
aligned to operational needs.
• Participation in safety committee meetings in which health
and safety concerns can be raised.
• Direct consultation with employees at team meetings in
which health and safety is on the agenda.

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Informal Consultation:
• Involvement of employees in the safety process of the company.
• Involving employees in carrying out risk assessments – they do the
job regularly so may point out concerns you could miss. (never
underrate this!)
• Involve employees in safety circles to contribute to problem solving
exercises
• Facilitate proactive monitoring of safety by encouraging employees
to report hazards, near misses and safety improvements.
• Having day to day discussions with employees through ad-hoc
safety tours and involvement in audit monitoring.
• Involvement of employees in accident investigations and debriefs.
• Involvement of employees in developing systems of work.

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As you can see there are many ways to embed a safety
culture in a business. A happy workforce is a safe workforce.
The HSE has produced a guidance document HSG48 called
“Reducing error and improving behaviour” It has some useful
information on behavioural safety.
Safety Culture is a vast subject which covers areas around
machine safety, environmental safety and fail safe systems –
these slides have given a broad interface between senior
management and employees in managing safety.

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This presentation is a very basic outline. As a business you will
need to determine the level of training required by staff to maintain a
safe and protected business operations.
In no way does this presentation represent a suitable and sufficient
training package for staff as every business has different needs thus
no liability can be sought against the owner of this material.
Remember it is the business owners responsibility to have a
suitable and sufficient risk management plan in place, to keep it up
to date and provide “competent” training for staff to fulfil their
employed duties with regards health and safety.

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Contact:
David Bennion
Mobile:
07900431649
E-mail:
dgbhealthandsafety@btinternet.com
Web:
http://www.dgbhealthandsafety.uk
There is a comments box on the website
if you have any questions.
To find out the services on offer go the
services page on my website.

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Thank you
for
watching