Health & Safety Culture

1. Douglas
Borough
Council
Improving Safety
Culture

2. Douglas
Borough
Council
Introduction
 In order for Douglas Borough Council to
advance in Health & Safety it is vital that
work is carried out to improve the Health &
Safety Culture within the organisation. This
presentation is the first step towards
achieving this.

3. Douglas
Borough
Council
Benefits
 A positive health and safety culture has
benefits to the organisation as a whole.
 It will in time provide cost saving in several
areas.
 The model we are going to look at, is not
just a health and safety model, but a good
business model.

4. Douglas
Borough
Council
Reduction is lost time
 If Douglas Borough Council were to
completely eradicate sickness/lost time it
would financially be the equivalent of 10
manual workers pay for a whole year.
 In the current economic downturn would it
not be an opportunity to embrace this
concept and reap the rewards?

5. Douglas
Borough
Council
Where do we start
 Well the good news is we have already
begun.
 We have taken a snap shot of the
organisations perception of health and
safety culture.
 This has given us a benchmark of were we
are today.

6. Douglas
Borough
Council
Safety Culture Maturity Continually
Improving
Level 5
Cooperating Develop
Level 4 consistency and
fight
complacency
Involving Engage all staff to
Level 3 develop cooperation and
commitment to
improving safety
Managing Realise the importance of
Level 2 frontline staff and develop
personal responsibility
Emerging Develop
Level 1 Management
Commitment
© The Keil Centre, 1999

7. Douglas
Borough
Council
Level One: Emerging
 Safety is defined in terms of technical and
procedural solutions and compliance with
regulations.
 Safety is not seen as a key business risk and the
safety department is perceived to have primary
responsibility for safety.
 Many accidents are seen as unavoidable and as part
of the job.
 Most frontline staff are uninterested in safety and
may only use safety as the basis for other
arguments, such as changes in shift systems.

8. Douglas
Borough
Council
Level Two: Managing
 The organisation’s accident rate is average for its
industrial sector but it tends to have more serious
accidents than average.
 Safety is seen as a business risk and management
time and effort is put into accident prevention.
 Safety is solely defined in terms of adherence to
rules and procedures and engineering controls.
 Accidents are seen as preventable.

9. Douglas
Borough
Council
Level Two: Managing cont……….
 Managers perceive that the majority of accidents
are solely caused by the unsafe behaviour of front-
line staff.
 Safety performance is measured in terms of lagging
indicators such as lost time injurys (LTI) and safety
incentives are based on reduced LTI rates.
 Senior managers are reactive in their involvement
in health and safety (i.e. they use punishment
when accident rates increase).

10. Douglas
Borough
Council
Level Three: Involving
 Accident rates are relatively low, but they
have reached a plateau.
 The organisation is convinced that the
involvement of the frontline employee in
health and safety is critical, if future
improvements are going to be achieved.
 Managers recognise that a wide range of
factors cause accidents and the root causes
often originate from management decisions.

11. Douglas
Borough
Council
Level Three: Involving cont………..
 A significant proportion of frontline
employees are willing to work with
management to improve health and safety.
 The majority of staff have a realisation of
their personal responsibility for their own
health and safety.
 Safety performance is actively monitored
and the data is used effectively.

12. Douglas
Borough
Council
Level Four: Cooperating
 The majority of staff in the organisation are
convinced that health and safety is
important from both a moral and economic
point of view.
 Managers and frontline staff recognise that a
wide range of factors cause accidents and
the root causes are likely to come back to
management decisions.
 Frontline staff accept personal responsibility
for their own and others health and safety.

13. Douglas
Borough
Council
Level Four: Cooperating cont……..
 The importance of all employees feeling
valued and treated fairly is recognised.
 The organisation puts significant effort into
proactive measures to prevent accidents.
 Safety performance is actively monitored
using all data available.
 Non-work accidents are also monitored and
a healthy lifestyle is promoted.

14. Douglas
Borough
Council
Level Five: Continued Improvement
 The prevention of all injuries or harm to employees
(both at work and at home) is a core company
value.
 The organisation has had a sustained period (years)
without a recordable accident or high potential
incident, but there is no feeling of complacency.
 It live with the paranoia that it’s next accident is
just around the corner.
 The organisation uses a range of indicators to
monitor performance but it is not performance-
driven, as it has confidence in its safety processes.

15. Douglas
Borough
Council
Level Five: Continued Improvement cont.
 The organisation is constantly striving to be
better and find better ways of improving
hazard control mechanisms.
 All employees share the belief that health
and safety is a critical aspect of their job
and accept that the prevention of non-work
injuries is important.
 The company invests considerable effort in
promoting health and safety at home.

16. Douglas
Borough
Council
How do we achieve this?
Plan Do Check Act
Plan •Identify key problem areas or issues for human factors in your workplace (talk to staff and their
representatives, look at accident and near miss reports, look at risk assessments);
•Prioritise these issues;
•Allocate resources;
•Identify expertise;
•Develop possible solutions or actions plans (consider people, their tasks, the work environment and
organisational attributes); and
•Encourage staff and other people with a stake in the change to participate and solution development.
Do •Raise awareness of the issues and gain acceptance for change;
•Implement solutions;
•Involve staff and their representatives; and
•Communicate about the actions and successes
Check Evaluate the effectiveness of actions by asking for the options of staff and their representatives;
•Check relevant data sources; and
•Observe relevant activities.
Act •If the situation is not satisfactory then identify possible reasons;
•Identify alternative steps; and
•Encourage participation to solve the situation.

17. Douglas
Borough
Council
Example
Key issues include;
 Communication
 Cooperation between Management and Staff
 Active Monitoring ie;
— Near miss reporting
— No injury accident reporting
 Information, Instruction, Training & Supervision
 Reactive Monitoring
 Review

18. Douglas
Borough
Council
 Senior Management commitment is crucial to a
positive health and safety culture.
 This commitment produces higher levels of
motivation and concern for health and safety
throughout the organisation.
 It is best indicated by the proportion of resources
(time, money, people) and support allocated to
health and safety management and by the status
given to health and safety.
 The active involvement of senior management in
the health and safety system is very important.
 Managers need to be seen to lead by example when
it comes to health and safety.

19. Douglas
Borough
Council
 Management style is influential.
 A ‘humanistic’ approach to management involving
more regard by managers for individuals’ personal
and work problems is likely to be effective.
 This assumes direct and rapid action to identify
and resolve individual problems in an appropriately
caring and concerned manner.

20. Douglas
Borough
Council
 Visible management is very important for a health
and safety culture.
 Good managers appear regularly on the ‘shop floor’
and talk about health and safety.
 Staff need to believe that all their managers are
committed to health and safety.

21. Douglas
Borough
Council
 Good communications between all levels of
employee.
 An ‘open door’ policy may be helpful with direct
access to the management hierarchy where
appropriate.
 In a positive culture questions about health and
safety should be part of everyday work
conversations.
 This flows from ownership - the encouragement of
personal responsibility and participation by
everyone in health and safety measures.

22. Douglas
Borough
Council
 A balance of health and safety and production
goals.
 People may believe that high standards of health
and safety inevitably mean slower work rates.
 In contrast, production may be seen to be
increased through ‘cutting corners’.
 Excessive production pressure creates an
atmosphere of distraction and a shortage of time
which makes human errors more likely.

23. Douglas
Borough
Council
 Excessive pressure may give rise to physical or
mental health effects in some employees, and to a
higher rate of ‘violations’ of health and safety
rules.
 In a positive culture health and safety is regarded
as important, is promoted, and is not
compromised.

24. Douglas
Borough
Council
The Ten Elements
 Management commitment and visibility
 Communication
 Productivity versus safety
 Learning organisation
 Safety resources
 Participation
 Shared perceptions about safety
 Trust
 Industrial relations and job satisfaction
 Training

25. Douglas
Borough
Council
Questions
?