Health and safety culture

Health and Safety CultureBy

Ahsanullah Soomro

05/02/23 Engr. Ahsanullah Soomro 1

health and safety culture

• The health and safety culture of an organization may be described as the development stage of the organization in health and safety management at a particular time.

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Safety culture and safety performance• The following elements are the important

components of a positive health and safety culture:– leadership and commitment to health and safety

throughout and at all levels of the organization;– acceptance that high standards of health and safety are

achievable as part of a long-term strategy formulated by the organization;

– a detailed assessment of health and safety risks in the organization and the development of appropriate control and monitoring systems;

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– relevant employee training programmes and communication and consultation procedures;

– systems for monitoring equipment, processes and procedures and the prompt rectification of any defects;

– the prompt investigation of all incidents and accidents and reports made detailing any necessary remedial actions.

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Safety culture and safety performance

Important indicators of a health and safety culture

• There are several outputs or indicators of the health and safety culture of an organization.

• The most important are the numbers of accidents, incidents and occupational ill-health cases occurring within the organization.

• Although the number of accidents may give a general indication of the health and safety culture, a more detailed examination of accidents and accident statistics is normally required

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• The OSHA Recordable Incident Rate (or Incident Rate) is calculated by multiplying the number of recordable cases by 200,000, and then dividing that number by the number of labor hours at the company.

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• a company has 17 full-time employees and 3 part-time employees This equates to 28,400 labor hours each year. If the company experienced 2 recordable injuries, then the formula works like this:

– What is now known is that for every 100 employees, 14.08 employees have been involved in a recordable injury or illness.

– smaller companies that experience recordable incidents will most likely have high incident rates

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• an organization with a high accident incidence rate is likely to have a negative or poor health and safety culture.

• There are other indications of a poor health and safety culture or climate. These include:– a high sickness, ill health and absentee rate among the

workforce;– the perception of a blame culture;

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– no resources (in terms of budget, people or facilities) made available for the effective management of health and safety;

– a lack of compliance with relevant health and safety law and the safety rules and procedures of the organization;

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• In summary, a poor health and safety performance within an organization is an indication of a negative health and safety culture.

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•Factors affecting a health and safety culture??????

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Factors affecting a health and safety culture

commitment to health and safety

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Performance targets

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feelings of uncertainty

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Poor levels of supervision

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Poor levels health and safety information

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Poor levels training

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Human factor

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Human errors and violations

• Human failures in health and safety are classified either as errors or violations.

• An error is an unintentional deviation from an accepted standard, whereas a violation is a deliberate deviation from the standard

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• Human errors• Human errors fall into three groups – • slips, • lapses and • mistakes, which can be further sub-divided into

rulebased and knowledge-based mistakes.

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Slips and lapses

• These are very similar in that they are caused by a momentary memory loss often due to lack of attention or loss of concentration.

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Slips

• Slips are failures to carry out the correct actions of a task.

• Not doing what you’re meant to do

– A slip also describes an action taken too early or too late within a given working procedure.

– omitting a step or series of steps from a task, eg forgetting to switch the kettle on while making a cup of tea

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Lapses

• ‘Forgetting to do something, or losing your place midway through a task.’

• taking your mask off to talk to a colleague and then forgetting to put it back on

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Mistakes• Mistakes occur when an incorrect action takes place

but the person involved believes the action to be correct.

• A mistake involves an incorrect judgment. There are two types of mistake – rule-based and knowledge-based.

• Rule-based mistakes occur when a rule or procedure is remembered or applied incorrectly.

• These mistakes usually happen when the rule that is normally used no longer applies.

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Mistakes

• For example, a particular job requires the counting of items into groups of ten followed by the adding together of the groups so that the total number of items may be calculated.

• If one of the groups is miscounted, the final total will be incorrect even though the rule has been followed.

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Mistakes• Knowledge-based mistakes occur when well-tried

methods or calculation rules are used incorrectly.

• For example, the depth of the foundations required for a particular building was calculated using a formula.

• The formula, which assumed a clay soil, was used to calculate the foundation depth in a sandy soil. The resultant building was unsafe.

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Mistakes

• Errors and mistakes can be reduced by the use of instruction, training and relevant information.

• However, communication can also be a problem, particularly at shift handover times.

• Environmental and organizational factors involving workplace stress will also affect error levels.

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• The following steps are suggested to reduce the likelihood of human error:– Examine and reduce the workplace stressors (e.g. noise, poor

lighting) which increase the frequency of errors.

– Examine and reduce any social or organizational stressors (e.g. insufficient staffing levels).

– Design plant and equipment to reduce error possibilities – poorly designed displays, unclear instructions.

– Ensure that there are effective training arrangements.

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– Simplify any complicated or complex procedures.– Ensure that there is adequate supervision, particularly for

inexperienced or young trainees.– Check that job procedures, instructions and manuals are

kept up to date and are clear.– Include the possibility of human error when undertaking

the risk assessment.– Monitor the effectiveness of any measures taken to

reduce errors.

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Violations• These are intentional failures – ‘deliberately doing the

wrong thing’. • The violation of health and safety rules or procedures

is one of the biggest causes of accidents and injuries at work.

• Workplace rules are broken for many different reasons:– ‘I felt I had no choice’ – (intentional due to the situation or

rules).– ‘I didn’t care about the consequences’ – (intentional

violations).

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Violations

• There are three categories of violation – routine, situational and exceptional.

• Routine violation occurs when the breaking of a safety rule or procedure is the normal way of working.

• It becomes routine not to use the recommended procedures for tasks.

• An example of this is the regular speeding of fork-lift trucks in a warehouse so that orders can be fulfilled on time.

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Violations

• There are many reasons given for routine violations;• for example: – taking short cuts to save time and energy;– a belief that the rules are unworkable;– lack of knowledge of the procedures;– perception that the rules are no longer applied;– poor supervision and a lack of enforcement of the rules;– new workers thinking that routine violations are the norm

and not realizing that this was not the safe way of working.

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• The following features are very common in many workplaces and often lead to routine violations:

– poor working posture due to poor ergonomic design of the workstation or equipment;

– equipment difficult to use and/or slow in response;– equipment difficult to maintain or pressure on time

available for maintenance;

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– unreliable instrumentation and/or warning systems;

– high levels of noise and other poor aspects to the environment (fumes, dusts, humidity);

– associated PPE either inappropriate, difficult and uncomfortable to wear or ineffective due to lack of maintenance.

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Situational violations• Situational violations occur when particular job

pressures at particular times make rule compliance difficult.

• They may happen when the correct equipment is not available or weather conditions are adverse.

• A common example is the use of a ladder rather than a scaffold for working at height to replace window frames in a building.

• Situational violations may be reduced by improving job design, the working environment and supervision.

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• Exceptional violations rarely happen and usually occur when a safety rule is broken to perform a new task.

• Good examples of this are the violations which can occur during the operations of emergency procedures such as for fires or explosions.

• • These violations should be addressed in risk

assessments and during training sessions for emergencies (e.g. fire training).

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• Everybody is capable of making errors.• • It is one of the objectives of a positive health and

safety culture to reduce them and their consequences as much as possible.

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How health and safety behavior at work can be

improved????

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commitment by the management,

A visible management is very important for a positive health and safety culture.

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the promotion of health and safety standards,

everyone within the organization needs to understand the standards

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effective communication within the organization

verbal, written and graphic

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cooperation from and with the workforce and

It is important to gain the cooperation of all employees which is achieved by consultation

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an effective and developing training programme

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Health and safety training

• Health and safety training is a very important part of the health and safety culture and it is also a legal requirement

• There are several different types of training; these include induction, job specific, supervisory and management, and specialist.

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• Induction training• Induction training should always be provided to new

employees, trainees and contractors.

• It is useful if the employee signs a record to the effect that training has been received.

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• Job-specific training• Job-specific training ensures that employees

undertake their job in a safe manner.

• Details of the safe system of work or, in more hazardous jobs, a permit to work system, should be covered.

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• Supervisory and management training• Supervisory and management health and safety

training follows similar topics to those contained in an induction training course but will be covered in more depth.

• There will also be a more detailed treatment of health and safety law.

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Health and safety training• Specialist training• Specialist health and safety training is normally

needed for activities that are not related to a specific job but more to an activity.

• Examples include first-aid, fire prevention, fork-lift truck driving, overhead crane operation, scaffold inspection and legal health and safety inspections.

• These training courses are often provided by specialist organizations and successful participants are awarded certificates

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