Building a positive safety culture is the new productivity enhancement strategy

Among most businesses, safety culture can be quite underrated. As a consequence of this, employees are in danger of experiencing accidents or mental health issues, which affects the overall productivity of the business, along with its brand recognition. And according to Statista, the number of training hours per employee has decreased in the US, especially in small businesses. On the other hand, it seems like midsize businesses are the ones that spend the largest amount of time on training their employees in 2022, much more than larger businesses. 

Besides the alarming statistics, a positive safety culture is what can save a company from failure. Many organizations misconduct company processes, which leads to small but significant errors when it comes to safety. However, what these companies oversee is that a positive safety culture leads to an improved recruitment process and enhances productivity and employee well-being, which is essential for a business to thrive. 

This article features the importance of safety at work and how your company can introduce it to become more scalable.

What is a positive safety culture?

Workplace culture is an essential and unique process that every business undergoes as a way for everyone to blend in and form completeness. But workplace safety culture should be mandatory for any organization that hires employees and is needed regardless of what they’re expected to perform at the office or on-site. Some key components of safety culture include the following:

• Leadership provides time, money and personnel resources to maintain safety actively;
• Proper methods for identifying and controlling hazards and potential risks;
• Ongoing communication, education and training, easy to understand and accessible for everyone;

How could safety culture benefit your business?

Positive safety culture can provide productivity enhancement because as long as your employees are not risking their lives while working and are in a safe environment, it’s expected that all tasks are done on time and in an efficient way. Besides that, a safety culture can contribute to stability in your organization, which means that even during uncertain or challenging times, the company remains stable.

Another essential element of safety culture is reducing medical and insurance costs, which automatically means a reduced number of worker’s compensation claims. As a result, many expenses could be reduced. This finally leads us to high recruitment potential, provided by lesser incident reports and a better brand image.

How can you build a positive safety culture at work?

Safety culture isn’t that challenging to provide in the workplace, but it sure needs some time to be grounded deeply in the business. Luckily, many strategies, software applications and guidelines can help you toward achieving a positive safety culture.

For example, an EHS process management system can help you easily manage your environmental risks and safety hazards in only one place. Such an application is designed to comprise the whole company’s set of beliefs, values and behaviors in a more statistical way so that training, performance and regulations are up-to-date and checked when implemented.

On the other hand, while controlling management processes, it’s also best to involve your workers in the process. This makes them feel heard, which gives them the feeling their health is a priority, leading to an increase in interest in following up with safety regulations. Environmental health and safety ―EHS work best when all business participants are accountable, including leadership members and employees.

Simple steps toward achieving company safety culture

Regardless of the industry your business activates, you can’t start the process without providing accurate characteristics of what you want to achieve. It’s also necessary to point out what a safe company culture looks like so that everyone can have an idea of what needs to be done. Here are some simple steps to follow as guidance.

Define responsibilities

Leadership sounds good to anyone, but defining and dispersing responsibilities to other employees will help reinforce policies and goals continuously so that a safety culture will be present at all organizational levels. Defining what everyone needs to do to ensure a safe environment will not only minimize the chances of confusion and errors. Still, it will also make everyone aware of the importance of safety.

Develop an open communication system

Being open to discussion and encouraging employees to speak is essential, but providing an available communication system is what makes the safety program reliable. Whether you choose an app, program or software solution for this communication to be made possible, make sure anyone can access it and provide enough training.

Build a reporting system

Among all aspects of safety, reporting a potential hazard or danger within the company is vital. That’s because security is challenging to ensure without knowing what’s happening in the workplace. There’s also the problem of not reporting small risks because employees might be afraid of being disciplined. Still, if you’re a natural leader and understand the importance of safety, you should encourage them to signal every potential hazardous situation around the office.

Celebrate success

Involving everyone in the safety program process is a good thing, but celebrating small achievements regarding safety should also be considered. That’s because when people collectively reach a specific point or a goal they intended, it makes them want to improve and continue on this path. Therefore, each time you can point out an accomplished long-term or short-term goal, you could try acknowledging everyone’s efforts.

Commit to innovation

The final step is always looking forward to better ways of providing safety. Given that regulations and guidelines are constantly changing, it’s best to consider them essential when it comes to an annual review of how much your company has changed. At the same time, you can research the ways other businesses keep a positive safety culture within their organizations and try approaching anything new that can improve your employees’ productivity and well-being at the workplace.

Bottom line

Positive safety culture is vital for a company to succeed and develop. Without it, employees are always at risk of injuring themselves, care costs and increasing, and the business’s brand image is ruined.