Safety Culture

Are you Zoned in on Safety Culture? What would a good safety culture in the workplace and at home look like to you?

Recently Hawk did a presentation for a company, who had just employed a new Safety Manager. Speaking about the safety culture at the organization, they indicated that the perception of Safety Manager was – “maintenance”.  You know fixing the stuff that broke.   Yes, maintaining equipment is essential, but a working safety culture encompasses is a little more than that.

I started my presentation then with a definition I had heard: “Safety is a state of mind prior to taking an action”. That sums up safety pretty well, to me.   Yet can you transpose that into a whole workplace safety culture.   I know all the Safety Managers out there are dedicated to doing this.

To some workers, there may seem that there is a lot of paper work.. but, my thoughts are that it serves the purpose not only of identifying potential hazards, but to get you into the zone – that state of mind prior to attempting an action.

A Personal Safety Culture

Now, if safety is a state of mind,  many of us are in unsafe states most of the time.

Since my workplace accident, not a day goes by where I can be lax about my personal safety.   I have developed my own personal safety culture  – to watch where I wheel, so I don’t loose my balance and fall out,  to monitor my temperature, so I don’t overheat and die and simply I need to be careful about pressure sores so I don’t end up in hospital.

Think about it,  how many times do you actually contemplate what you are about to do.    Do you think what could happen?  Now I know if you are a parent,  you seem to be always contemplating what could go wrong and say “don’t do that, get off there, watch out, be careful…”  Well mothers anyway, fathers may be a little less naggy.

However, there comes a time – usually around child 4 that you just seem to perhaps relax the safety watch.   Nothing changes, other than you know how long it takes you to get to the hospital – and it’s probably just that you get more used to kids being kids.  You still have the same safety values and safety culture, you just get lax.

This applies to work to… not the knowing the distance to the hospital – hopefully, but the bit about getting used to what you are doing.     When you do the same thing day in day out, over and over… it’s a bit easy to become complacent and perhaps zone out of that state of mind prior to taking an action.

How often do you have a near miss and think.. what could have really gone wrong here.   Is it your safety culture to consider these things – at work and at home.

If having your safety culture at the forefront of your people’s minds is essential to your business – why not connect with us here at RVPresentations and get Hawk to come and share his story with your people.   Hawk’s safety presentation reaches everyone and gets them in the zone of thinking about their safety culture.

Becoming safety aware, considering the consequences of taking your mind off the job – even if it’s a job they do everyday.. may entice workers to become even more safety conscious and focus on the maintaining your organizational safety culture.