Are you a fish? (Safety Culture)

According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE)

“The safety culture of an organisation is the product of individual and group values, attitudes, perceptions, competencies, and patterns of behaviour that determine the commitment to, and the style and proficiency of, an organisation’s health and safety management

Every morning rain or shine, I go over to my Koi pond, which has a mix of Koi and Orfe. Six large Koi, and four large Golden and Blue Orfe. The main pond overflows via two sandstone troughs into the lower goldfish pond.
When I approach, all the fish swim excitedly over to welcome me.

As a health and safety professional, are your workers like these fish – Excited to see you, welcoming you when arriving on-site, at the warehouse, or while meandering around the shop floor? or do they do their utmost to scatter and hide? – Poor Safety Culture.

Why workers scatter and fish welcome you?

The fish in my pond see the benefit of me; I’m the provider bringing them food; this raises an excitement in giving them something they want and need.
Businesses overlook the same level of engagement from the workforce as I have created with the fish in my pond.
Health and Safety professionals are providing a vital survival service just the same as me feeding the fish and maintaining the filters providing them with crystal clear water.
The divide is that workers do not see health and safety colleagues as providing a necessary survival service – They’re working for the board and not representing the workers.

The worker and in some cases the managers, rebel as they see health and safety is an inhibitor stopping him/her from doing their job, something which has little benefit to the task in hand and an unrequired service which increases costs and diminishes project time.

This rejection, rebellion and ill-feeling from the workforce are creating an imbalance, and both sides are not synchronising.
We have on one-hand a worker rebelling toward health and safety and a health and safety professional providing a vital survival service to educate, support and prevent harm.

Directors, managers and the workers are all guilty of not recognising health and safety as trusted people implementing sufficient standards as is legally required.

Safety Culture with Real-time analytics

The businesses Safety PAL has supported for many years have an excellent safety culture understanding the value that functional, robust and uncomplicated H&S helps individuals work smarter, safer and faster.

This success isn’t just down to Safety PAL though; we operate by strengthening the team, providing tools to expedite vital information, recording incidents and good working practices and proving the worker understands the risks and associated control measures.

Together by developing a stable and legally compliant business, the company has the evidence to defend a health and safety breach or employer injury claim.

To further grow and develop a robust safety culture, Safety PAL works 24/7 365 in the organisational structure to bridge the divide.
It provides managers and directors with a comprehensive overview via real-time analytics, while supporting workers in staying safe and returning home at the end of their shift via education, interaction and relevant learning.

Safety PAL is not your only solution; money works too.

Every company can create a robust safety culture, successfully defend a breach of health and safety and prove a worker was a negligent worker under a breach or injury claim. But that level of evidence and proof all comes at a cost.

The cost is proportionate to the people who are managing the systems, the unproductive operational time which originate from safety stand-downs, external training sessions and the additional resource required to operate and maintain multiple systems, apps and spreadsheets.
Furthermore, health and safety professionals spend considerable time battling with rebellious workers on the frontline and directors in the boardroom.This cost of managing health and safety increases the burden of health and safety and more significantly expanding the divide.

Can I show you – Demonstrate good safety culture?

Productive companies see a vital requirement to reduce management costs, which are inherent with multiple systems, apps, and spreadsheets. They recognise the efficiency of a single-source solution reducing time and providing financial relief.

You should be excited about the possibility of reducing resource while better managing health and safety. Before you book a 20-minute demonstration of Safety PAL, please take a look at ‘Why Safety PAL exists’