Out Loud Blog

The “do as I say, not as I do” approach is not an effective method of leading, particularly when working to improve an organization’s safety culture. In order to establish an effective safety culture, senior management must lead by example.

Culture is the atmosphere created by shared beliefs, shared attitudes, practices and a philosophy that characterizes a group of people. An organization’s safety culture is the result of a number of these factors.

In order for an organization to develop a strong safety culture, that culture must start from the top (senior management) and extend down to the least experienced employee. Every worker needs to understand that safety must be the first focus of his or her job. The final responsibility for safety is not the responsibility of the safety person, but of each employee doing the work. After all, at the end of every day, the workers are the ones safely returning home – or not.

A Consistent, Visible Duty

Senior management’s participation in health and safety programs must be a consistent and visible duty. For example, leaders should attend or participate in weekly safety meetings and speak to the newly hired employees at the safety orientation. This clearly demonstrates the commitment from upper management from day one.

Training managers, supervisory staff, key employees and the safety and health committee (if established) also is a good baseline for an effective culture. This training should include team building, hazard recognition, communication, mentoring and safety and health training, along with the development of a comprehensive safety program and guidelines that will be enforced by senior management. These elements will provide the group with a good foundation.

Safety training is a continuous process and working safely must be a condition of each worker’s employment. Training should include, but not be limited to, the use and care of personal protective equipment (PPE), working in at-risk positions, the proper use of tools and equipment, company safety procedures and proper housekeeping. Statistics have shown that the aforementioned areas, if improperly executed, often result in the leading causes of many construction incidents.

Everyone is Responsible for Safety

No one plans to have an accident. No worker leaves home in the morning thinking, “I’m going to hurt myself or somebody else today.” However, incidents do happen and there is always a reason. Workplace injuries might be attributed to complacency, job pressures (production, deadlines and long work hours), family problems, stress, lack of training or failure to recognize risk, among a host of other reasons. Sometimes the reason may be a simple lack of knowledge, or perhaps the worker did not understand instructions due to a language barrier.

In a strong safety culture, everyone feels responsible for safety and pursues it on a daily basis. In this type of environment, employees go beyond the call of duty to identify unsafe conditions and behaviors and intervene to correct them. For instance, in a strong safety culture, any worker would feel comfortable walking up to the plant manager or CEO and reminding him or her to wear safety glasses. This type of behavior would not be viewed as forward or overzealous, but rather would be valued and rewarded.

Management needs to establish a shared vision of safety, health and environmental goals and objectives versus a sole emphasis on production. Senior management also must be willing to support safety by providing resources (time, money for training) and holding managers and supervisors accountable for the same practices. The entire management and supervisory staff must set the example and lead the challenge.

In the end, influencing safety culture is more about leadership than management. Without support from senior management, safety behavior changes are less likely to be sustained.

Robert Guerra has 28 years of experience as a safety professional with an extensive background in providing safety program administration, supervision and training for field personnel and safety inspection services for construction projects. He has supported safety for construction of highways, building construction, airport construction and oil well sites. Robert currently serves as a senior principal technical specialist in the Los Angeles World Airports office of Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB), a global infrastructure strategic consulting, engineering and program/construction management organization. He is a Certified Safety Executive; a Certified Safety Manager and Hazardous Materials Supervisor with the World Safety Organization (WSO); the current president of the Southern California WSO Chapter; a Certified Safety and Health Manager with the National Safety Management Society (NSMS); and a member of the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE).

I know what you’re thinking. And while I hear 3 Musketeers candy bars supposedly have a richer chocolaty taste, that’s not what I’m talking about. Instead, I’m referring to our 17th century heroes in the novel The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. Most of us are familiar with the movie version of the story, and currently can see the 3D remake of the action-adventure film. I’m not going to get into the storyline, but I do want to focus on the Musketeers of the Guard’s motto. So let us raise our imaginary swords to the sky and say it together: “All for one and one for all.”

I love that battle cry. Each of the members is dedicated and accountable to one another. That word “accountable” is often used in our own daily lives and workplaces, but rarely acted on. We have a hard time being personally accountable, much less a shared accountability. But accountability is crucial when it comes to safety.

My friends and family often call me a “safety nerd.” If I remember correctly from elementary school, “nerd” stands for Never Ending Radical Dude. Being compared to an over-glorified school hall monitor who orders you to stop running in the hallways and who hands out detentions for being late to class is nothing new to me. Occasionally, however, I meet someone who is actually interested and familiar with what I do. Those are my favorite people, by the way. Recently, I had a conversation with one of them – a business owner by the name of Donald Smith.

A couple of years ago, Donnie decided to buy out his current company and become his own boss. He is now the owner of Pacific Crest Landscape Inc. How sweet is that? To leave on a Friday answering to your superiors only to return on Monday to have them answer to you, all while you help them clear out of your new office. Dreams do come true. But I digress.

Donnie was all fired up and excited to tell me that since he’s taken over in 2009 he has experienced exactly ZERO accidents. This of course results in a lower ex-mod, lower insurance rates and most importantly, no one has been injured. I shared in his enthusiasm and asked how he accomplished this. Donnie told me that when he took over, he set the bar extremely high for safety, exchanging old habits for new ones. He has multiple crews of workers and they are accountable for each other’s actions. If one member succeeds, they all succeed. If one of the members fails, they all fail. It’s that simple.

What happens when we experience a lapse in safety? It often turns into the finger-pointing blame game. No one told me about that. It’s not my job to check this. So and so was supposed to do that. Sound familiar?

Companies spend a lot of time and money on safety procedures, behavior-based safety seminars, training and the proper way to use equipment and tools. All good things, but despite these efforts, we still see a lot of people getting hurt. Why? Could it be due to that lack of accountability? I wonder if a commitment to personal and shared accountability when it comes to safety would make a significant difference. I’d like to think so.

Do yourself a favor and walk around your office, warehouse, construction site or wherever you spend your working hours and ask, “Who’s responsible for safety?” My bet is that most of your fellow employees will point you in the direction of the safety manager or human resource director. That, of course, is the wrong answer. Each of us is responsible for the safety at our place of work. Hopefully, that same employee eventually will know to point at him or herself. This is the kind of response we should desire. That’s the accountability we’re looking for.

“All for one and one for all.”

Guest blogger Aaron J. Morrow, CHST, works as a project HSE manager and is a safety consultant, an OSHA 500 trainer, a Cal/OSHA 5109 trainer and a construction risk insurance specialist.

During the 2011 National Safety Council (NSC) Congress and Expo in Philadelphia, DuPont CEO and board chair Ellen J. Kullman illustrated how safety “transcends geography, ethnicity, occupation, age or gender” by sharing a story about female employees in India trading their traditional saris for uniforms.

Kullman showed a short video about safety changes made at Tata Steel Limited in India, where female employees typically wore saris to work. This attire presented safety and productivity challenges.

“We were seeing women employees coming into the site wearing the traditional saris that could lead to major injuries,” said K. Ganesh, India business director, Dupont, in the video. “Going and talking to the women about changing their dress is a sensitive issue. So we assembled them in a room and we talked to them about safety. The response was, ‘If this is something we need to change, we are willing to change.’”

After Tata Steel began working with DuPont and making changes to its safety culture, female employees began wearing shirts and trousers instead. The women could more easily and safely drive bulldozers, trucks and locomotives in their new clothing.

“We take these safety lessons from the job to every part of our lives,” P. Ganeshweri, an operator at Tata Steel, explained in the video.

At NSC, Kullman stressed that “safety in the 21st century is not only transformative, it’s inclusive and, most importantly, it’s collaborative. It expands beyond workplaces into communities … We see safety as a continuum touching all facets of our lives.”

The video can be viewed here: DuPont Helps Promote Workplace Safety In India While Being Sensitive To Cultural Change.