How to Create a Safety Culture in Your Workplace

Every industry and workplace needs a strong safety culture. Safety culture prioritizes people first, integrating consideration, accountability, action, and wisdom.

By exploring how to create a culture of safety, you can build a stronger team and a positive work environment. Emphasizing a strong safety culture can also help your company better adhere to industry safety regulations and maintain compliance.

5 Components of a Strong Workplace Safety Culture 

A safety culture in the workplace means teams share essential values regarding safety attitudes, behaviors, practices, and protocols, prioritizing the well-being of staff and visitors at every level. A healthy and effective safety culture contains the following elements:

1. Clear communication: A good safety culture is impossible without strong communication channels. Leadership should be transparent about expectations regarding safety procedures and policies. Similarly, employees should be comfortable and confident with sharing their concerns or suggestions regarding workplace safety. There should also be clear channels in place for reporting and feedback.
2. Accountability: Safety culture promotes accountability. Each person is responsible for understanding safety protocol and following procedures. Additionally, leadership is responsible for providing a safe environment by establishing policies, providing safety equipment and accessories, and offering awareness and training.
3. Strong safety protocols and provisions: The workplace safety culture is built on strong safety protocols and provisions, such as providing safety courses for awareness and personal protective equipment when required.
4. Consistency: Safety expectations and procedures should apply to all team members at all times. Ideally, there should be little to no variation or flexibility in safety practices.
5. People first: A healthy safety culture puts people first. This culture values employees and recognizes the hazards they may face and the sacrifices they make, providing a workplace that recognizes their dedication and hard work.

Why Create a Culture of Safety?

The benefits of creating a culture of safety include:

• Better safety standards: A “safety first” mindset can help management and employees collaborate to improve safety standards and procedures. 
• Increased compliance: Focusing on and implementing safety policies can help boost your company’s level of compliance.
• Greater business potential: Safety culture can help you expand your business by attracting top talent.  
• Improved morale: An authentic safety culture is created around the value employees add to the workforce. This culture can help staff feel more valued and appreciated and boost morale.
• A more equipped workforce: Building a safety culture must include practical elements such as safety training and education. As a result, your workforce becomes more knowledgeable, skilled, and educated.

Evaluating Your Current Workplace Safety Culture 

Assessing your current safety culture is an excellent starting point for creating a safer workplace. This evaluation can help you identify areas of improvement regarding safety, communication, and team culture as a whole and can include the following actions:

• Assessing safety data: Look back on safety reports and other metrics related to safety. You can examine reports to determine the type of incidents or complaints that occur most often. You can also look at budgets to determine where the company spends the most money on safety and which areas lack funding. These assessments can help you identify areas that reflect a lack of caution or resources.
• Evaluating attitudes and behaviors: Asking a few vital questions can help you understand your staff’s current stance on safety. Do they fully understand and follow current safety protocols? Do they report hazards or low safety supply stocks? The answers to these types of questions can help you gauge your safety culture and highlight improvements for safety processes. 
• Conducting surveys: Surveys are an excellent way to understand workplace trends and beliefs regarding safety. You can conduct team or personal interviews, send feedback forms, and host meetings. Try to determine your workforce’s current viewpoints on safety so you can identify where education is needed.

How to Create a Positive Safety Culture

Once you’ve assessed your workplace’s current adherence to safety standards and safety beliefs, it’s time to get started. These steps will show you how to create a great safety culture that resonates with employees:

Build Strong Leadership

Your leadership sets the tone for your workplace, and employees follow the culture they model. There are several ways you can build strong leadership that represents a safety culture:

• Training and resources: Managers can lead by example by regularly upskilling through safety courses and certifications.
• Access to safety resources: Workplaces should provide managers with safety resources that help them prioritize safety. This should include a safety budget managers can rely on to distribute safety resources throughout the team.
• The freedom to delegate: Leaders are likely to be more effective when they can delegate tasks and share the safety of responsibility with everyone on the team. One of the main objectives of a safety culture is that responsibility and accountability should not fall to leaders alone. When leaders have the freedom to delegate, it makes it easier for everyone to participate in the safety culture.

Promote Open Communication

While strong leadership is imperative for cultivating a safety culture, it is most effective when there are open channels of communication between employees and management. Management should invite employees to share their views and suggestions for improving overall safety in the workplace.

When employees know they can share their safety concerns and see management take action, it builds trust and respect. This level of trust and transparency is paramount for a good safety culture, as it helps each team member commit to their role in increasing safety.

Prioritize Safety Training and Education  

One of the most effective ways of building an excellent safety culture is to provide equal opportunities for safety training and education. There are various ways companies can promote safety education:

• Courses and certificates: Enrolling your staff in safety courses and programs to become certified in various safety aspects is highly beneficial. These opportunities equip and empower your staff while also making your organization more compliant and competitive.
• Awareness workshops: You can educate employees and create a positive safety culture by hosting awareness workshops hosted by management or external safety authorities. Any time you make changes or updates to safety policy and procedures is the ideal time for these awareness workshops. Awareness workshops can also be a great time for team building exercises.
• Drills: Conducting regular safety drills is crucial to building a safety culture and is also practical and helpful when it matters most. Examples include fire safety drills, evacuation drills, and other emergency response scenarios.  

Empower Employees With Safety Training and Education 

Building a strong safety culture is possible when management and teams collaborate. With the right resources, you can empower employees, boost morale, and achieve a greater sense of responsibility, trust, and peace of mind regarding safety in the workplace.

At the National Association of Safety Professionals, we are committed to a practical approach to workplace safety by providing comprehensive safety certifications, courses, and resources.

We offer professional courses, certificate courses, and specialist courses for various industries, including general industry, oil and gas, construction, and environmental. We also have a NASP/IASP, Inc. Certification Program that provides workplace safety professionals with a program that helps them fulfill safety-related functions with competence and confidence.

Explore our courses and certifications today, or contact us to learn more about our programs. You can also sign up for NASP Membership for access to even more helpful resources, as well as special discounts and services.