Building a Safety Culture

Move the metal

My early years in the manufacturing industry were underpinned by a philosophy of “move the metal” or “production is king”.  Nothing could be allowed to hold up the shop floor, and production managers would warn me how many thousands of pounds per minute would be lost if assembly lines were allowed to grind to a halt.  The upshot was that everyone would do whatever it took to keep production lines running – often at the expense of quality, or safety, or both.  Managers would frequently turn a blind eye to, or tacitly reward, rule-breaking if it contributed toward production targets being met. 

Legislators of course were wise to such approaches, and a seemingly endless stream of regulations, culminating in the “six-pack” of EU directives, corporate manslaughter legislation, and higher fines, gradually forced through improvements.  The annual number of fatalities steadily fell throughout the 1990’s - yet progress eventually plateaued.

Into the next gear

By the end of the 20^th Century, it was becoming apparent to leading health & safety experts around the world that legislation, engineering controls (guarding, barriers, ventilation, maintenance, etc.) could only achieve so much.  If you watched the moving HBO film Chernobyl, you will understand that physical safeguards can be bypassed by determined humans – often for what seem like laudable reasons at the time.  A step-change was needed to move performance to the next level. 

“The way we do things around here”

It has long been known that relatively few accidents are caused by the absence of physical safeguards – most are caused by something far less tangible: peoples’ behaviour.

In the UK, the HSE started to move away from rules-based H&S management systems, and their ever-helpful guidance started to address what they called human factors.

Let’s cut to the chase

Academics will quote you elaborate definitions of what constitutes a safety culture, and how to recognise if one exists – or doesn’t exist.  Rather than bog you down with bullet points of definitions, questionnaires and checklists, I’ll give you my acid tests here:

• If a supervisor/team leader disappears (say, to attend a meeting), can he or she be confident that workers will continue to adhere to the rules during their absence?
• If an employee attempted to break your H&S rules, would peer pressure from the rest of the workforce reign them back in?
• If an employee refused to carry out a task they believed to be unsafe, would they be encouraged and visibly supported by senior management?
• If an accident should, sadly happen, does the most senior member of staff contact the family to take personal responsibility?

Contact us

Arinite clients appreciate we provide practical, no-nonsense advice about what you need to do to establish and maintain a safe and healthy working environment. Our team of health and safety consultants take pride in keeping health and safety simple.

If you need to call upon our expert assistance, or just for an informal chat, please call our office 0207 947 9581, or type an enquiry to: https://www.arinite.com/contact-us/.