How do people go about safety in your organization?
In this blog post you will find 5 signs that indicate the safety culture of your organization needs improvement.
1 – Complacency
Perhaps the worst best example of this is the following: a company that collected all fire extinguishers in one location so the audit could be done more quickly.
2 – Standing underneath hanging objects
Obviously it is dangerous to stand underneath a hanging object, but even more worrying about this example is that others are condoning the behavior and not holding people accountable. Perhaps they are condoning similar behavior in even worse situations with e.g. maintenance.
3 – After an incident, people get fired
A company that fails to do the ‘substitution test’ is doomed to repeat the same incident over and over again. The substitution test: Could someone of equal skill level, motivation and qualifications have made the same kind of error under those or similar circumstances?
4 – People break rules routinely
Similar to #2, perhaps the company can get away with breaking some rules routinely, but others can have much more disastrous consequences.
5 – Safety is the last item in meetings
If safety is an afterthought in meetings, then what will it be during operations?
Learn more
Interested in to learn more about safety culture and what you can do to optimize? Read the guest blog Mind the gap – Safety cultures at risk, or watch the interview with Prof. Dr. Jop Groeneweg on Blame culture.
