Improving Safety Culture in the

Workplace (Step-By-Step Guide)

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Workplace safety is more than box-checking and the occasional safety signs. If you
want to build a safer environment for your employees, improving safety culture in the
workplace is the place to start. According to research, at least.

Contents  hide table of content 

1 What is safety culture really?
2 How to implement a sustainable safety culture
2.1 8 steps to build your safety culture
3 Culture of safety examples
3.1 Positive safety culture example
3.2 Negative safety culture example
4 Measuring your safety performance
5 Conclusion
6 Further Reading
A study by OSHA revealed that employers who implemented a strong safety and
health management system noted a “transformed workplace culture”. Besides, they
experienced “higher productivity and quality, reduced turnover, reduced costs, and
greater employee satisfaction”.

Another study published by the Journal of Safety Research showed that a safety

culture intervention (creating more and better safety-related interactions) improved
performance:

“Results at follow-up indicated a marked improvement in HSO performance,

interaction patterns concerning safety, safety culture indicators, and a changed trend
in injury rates. These improvements are interpreted as cultural change because an
organizational double-loop learning process leading to modification of the basic
assumptions could be identified.”

What is safety culture really? 

Engaging your employees in safety is about encouraging them to take personal

responsibility for one another’s safety. It’s not an easy process, but it’s well worth the
effort.

When safety is a top priority, employees on all levels share the company’s safety
values. Everyone on your team perceives workplace safety as part of their job
responsibilities.

The trick here is that it’s easy for your safety culture to turn sour. If you’ll allow us to
paraphrase, the road to strong safety culture is paved with good intentions… 
So, what does a negative safety culture look like? Here are a few examples along
with ways to prevent bad safety culture habits.

Ideas to improve safety culture in the

Negative safety culture examples
workplace

Back-firing incentive programs which may If you want to set up such a successful safety
unintentionally encourage workers to avoid incentive program, ensure that you have
reporting incidents. For example, a safety considered it from all angles. Is there anything
incentive program where you reward employees that will stimulate employees to conceal
based on declining injury rates. accidents?

Asking employees to anonymously observe each To avoid this, encourage employees to report any
other. This happens when each individual is incidents or hazards without bias and backlash.
responsible for reporting unsafe behavior of co- Provide the opportunity to report positives and
workers. Such safety programs can create a tense improvement ideas, and run safety culture
work environment where conflicts and rivalry are perception surveys to gauge the effectiveness of
the norm. your safety program.

Ensure that the blame for a workplace incident is

well informed. Don’t just jump to the conclusion
If an incident does occur, it’s easily attributed to
that it’s “human error”. Consider all the external
the actions of an employee.
factors and potential safety hazards that may have
had a role.

So, how do you develop consistent safe work practices at your company?

It usually boils down to creating a safety culture improvement plan. This helps you
encourage your workers to be more proactive about preventative procedures. And it
helps you implement the appropriate safety measures across the board. Safety
becomes a standard procedure, rather than an afterthought.
How to implement a sustainable safety culture

So, now you know a bit more about the characteristics of positive and negative
safety cultures. In this section, we will outline how you can build a sustainable safety
culture in your workplace.

The key elements of strong safety culture were outlined in the 1999 IOM report To
Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System. Here they are: 

 The actions at management level, and the policies that they implement to
improve the safety of their workers.
 The extent of the participation of workers in safety planning.
 That workers had ready availability to any necessary protective equipment.
 The way that group norms influenced the operation of safety practices.
 The socialization process with which the company inducted new employees.
These are the basics of a successful health and safety workplace culture. All the
facets you need to look at. But, your organization is unique, and, so, your safety
initiatives must be adapted to it. True culture change requires a flexible, considerate
approach. 

8 steps to build your safety culture

With this in mind, here are the steps to build a positive safety culture:

1. Create accountability and well-defined responsibilities for your team

2. Outline policies, goals and plans for the future. This ensures the continued
growth and success of your safety culture.  
3. Assess your workplace’s current attitude towards health and safety. Pinpoint
any weaker areas and safety issues, and evaluate ways that they can be rectified.
4. Put a strong incident report system in place. At the same time, work
towards building your employee’s trust in the system. Workers need to know that
their issues will be listened to and dealt with, and their ideas will be heard. They
should not fear undue punishment.
5. Keep your team motivated. Praise the successes and strengths of your
operations, too.
6. Put a safety council in place. Then, schedule in regular meetings to discuss
potential safety improvements.
7. Improve your workforce’s safety knowledge. Anything from daily safety talks
to monthly training is a good idea. It will help encourage safe behavior among your
employees.
8. Simplify your current incident management and investigation process.

Culture of safety examples

Positive safety culture example

British Sugar Plc. is a great safety culture case study. 

The company had a strong safety record. But, in the space of just one year, it
experienced three deaths of its workers. It was evident that they needed a behavioral
change. 

The safety leadership team started a wave of culture change from the top. First, they
assigned health and safety responsibilities to all directors. Then, managers were
asked to report monthly to the company board. Annual health and safety-related
targets were set and tracked. Finally, working partnerships with employees and trade
unions were strengthened.

The company worked hard to improve their workplace safety culture. And the results
followed soon:

 A 43% reduction in injury-related time lost, over a two-year period

 A 63% decline in major issues over one year
 A significantly increased understanding of the directors regarding key health
and safety risks
Negative safety culture example

A negative safety culture example can be found in the report by the IOM that we

mentioned earlier.

At the time of the research, as many as 98,000 people in the US died in hospitals
every year, due to preventable medical errors. One of the report’s main conclusions
was that “the majority of medical errors do not result from individual recklessness or
the actions of a particular group… more commonly, errors are caused by faulty
systems, processes, and conditions that lead people to make mistakes or fail to
prevent them.” 

For example, patient-care units in hospitals were stocked with full-strength drugs.
Unless diluted, these drugs were toxic, which led to numerous deaths due to human
error. Deaths that could be prevented.

Measuring your safety performance 

Measuring and monitoring the impact that your safety culture improvement plan is
vital. This ensures that your health and safety standards continue to thrive and your
workers remain happy and healthy at work. And it’s also the way to achieve
continuous safety improvement in the future.

First, be sure to set clear, definitive safety targets for you all to strive towards. This is
a key way to help everyone feel involved and share in the success. Then, you can
move to the question at hand: 

How do you measure your safety performance?

You can measure your safety performance by making health and safety feedback a
habit. Useful feedback can be obtained in a variety of ways:

 Undertake a routine daily analysis of your safety performance.

 Study employee satisfaction. You can find a great survey template from
HSE here. This will help you gain a more nuanced understanding of the employees’
feelings about your current workplace safety. And this will make it easier to decide
what changes or improvements to focus on.
 Do follow-up surveys. This is a useful tool to gauge the success of your
improvement efforts.
 Organize weekly progress updates. You can brief your team about the
progress towards meeting your safety culture goals. This helps you all stay on track.
Conclusion
Creating a safe place to work is the first step. It’s the least that you can do for your
employees. And, with strong safety culture in place, you can become more proactive
about health and safety. You can move beyond lagging indicators such as DART
and TRIR.

So, if you and your management team are looking to commit to improving safety
culture in the workplace, there’s no time like the present. So, go for it!