Traditional safety cultures typically provide the necessary support for employees to strive beyond minimal efforts. Organizations relying on conventional safety and leadership approaches often fail to inspire the necessary safety-related behaviors and attitudes in their employees. In addition, these organizations have difficulty identifying, then removing barriers to safety excellence. Although most individuals possess the necessary values and intentions, their actual behaviors may not support a Total Safety Culture. Our mission is to help create a safety culture which enables employees to close the gap between their values, intentions, and actual behavior.

In a Total Safety Culture, employees not only feel responsible for their own safety, they feel responsible for their peers' safety, and the organizational culture supports them acting on that responsibility. Individuals have the necessary tools and methods, as well as appropriate person states (e.g., self-esteem, group belonging, personal control) to actively care for the safety of coworkers. Additionally, the organization's formal management systems and leaders' informal management practices facilitate actively caring by encouraging, recognizing, and reinforcing appropriate behaviors.

Behavior-Based Observation and Feedback
A behavior-based observation and feedback process provides visibility and control over upstream indicators of safety performance, namely, safe and at-risk behaviors. Using simple but effective observation techniques, employees periodically observe each other and then give appropriate one-on-one coaching feedback regarding safety-related behaviors. Observational data is collected and analyzed to identify areas needing special attention. It is then discussed in work teams to develop relevant intervention strategies. As employees become more comfortable with the informal observation process, they begin to observe and give behavior-based feedback informally as safety coaching becomes a natural part of the work culture.

Actively caring feedback from peers is a powerful motivator for safety-improvement behaviors, but is not sufficient for a Total Safety Culture. For lasting improvement, system-level causes of at-risk behavior must be addressed. Work teams use a problem solving process called "DO IT" to design, implement, evaluate, and refine strategies to achieve a Total Safety Culture.

So what does a positive safety culture look like? Basically it consists of eight core components:

• Worker Involvement: Employees feel they have some say in safety issues. They are involved in developing and implementing safety initiatives. Feedback from employees is actively solicited because few people know the hazards that accompany a job better than the people who do it.



• Management Commitment to Safety: Senior managers use their authority to enable and empower workers to behave in safer ways. They know a safe and productive working environment is much more likely to be developed from support by key managers.



• Personal Accountability: Employees are held accountable for their own well-being. Supervisors also realize that they are responsible for the safety performance of their subordinates. Just as punctuality, productivity and quality dimensions of worker performance are assessed by appraisal, so is safety.



• Performance Management: Job safety analyses are used to identify critical safe behaviors and measure the frequency of their occurrence. Employees are rewarded individually when they reach safety goals.



• Coworker Support: Employees are instructed in how to give and receive constructive feedback from their coworkers. They understand their behavior impacts not only their own safety, but the safety of those around them.



• Training, Equipment, Physical Environment: Employees have the proper training and physical resources to perform their jobs in safe ways. Personal protective equipment is readily available, and machine guards are in place.



• Organizational Commitment: Both managers and rank-and-file employees are committed to the well-being of all employees and to the organization as a whole.



• Job Satisfaction: The relationship among the seven previous factors is critical in analyzing the entire culture as a whole. When they work in conjunction with one another, job satisfaction increases.

By addressing these eight key components, safety officers and risk managers begin to change safety culture for the better. Considering the costs, both personal and financial, of safety matters, as well as the many benefits a positive safety culture can provide, culture change is a process well worth undertaking.

Learn more about the Idaho National Enviromental Engineering Laboratory

Learn more about the Idaho National Enviromental Engineering Laboratory VPP Program