World-class companies adopt safety as a core value, and demonstrate this value through actively caring for their employees. These companies have a clear culture that is shared by everyone from the CEO to the most junior staff member. Safety is viewed not as a cost, but as an opportunity to achieve superior business performance. Not surprisingly, good safety also drives good business outcomes.
Continuous safety improvement is an ongoing process, requiring perseverance, commitment and action from people throughout the organization. The final vision is a workplace that is free of incidents and injuries, where safety is integrated into the business processes.
Ultimately, there is little compromise between safety and performance. Improvement in safety performance impacts a company's culture, and the attitudes and behavior of its people. The outcome is a shared sense of trust, cooperation, loyalty, and commitment. Morale is lifted, and so is safety and performance. How can your organization obtain this desirable outcome?
How can SPS help?
SPS helps you understand the transformational nature of this change, using safety as a culture change driver.
- Leadership
We start with senior leadership. Strong safety leadership and their effective engagement with employees is the key to success. This means more than leaders having a passion for safety. Leaders have to drive that passion through the organization from the top, engaging with the whole organization and bringing everyone on board for the journey. SPS will work with your senior leaders to ensure they understand their role in creating and sustaining a Total Safety Culture. We then review the current strengths and weaknesses of the culture and identify key barriers that must be overcome to move safety forward. Finally, we develop a high-level strategic plan to move the organization forward, including a clear vision of the desired state, objectives and milestones marking our progress, and a communication strategy to ensure the message is consistent across the organization.
- Establishing Expectations
Having articulated a vision and created a strategic plan for your organization, the next step is to establish expectations across the organization. Every member of the organization, from the CEO to the new hires, has to be clear about his / her role and responsibilities and need to know what s/he is held accountable for and what can s/he expect from supervisors, peers and direct reports. This step includes creating intelligent metrics for safety, as well as reviewing the existing safety leadership structure for improvement opportunities.
- Developing Safety Leadership
Companies aiming for zero injuries and incidents find that strong safety leadership and effective engagement with employees are the keys to success. This means more than company leaders having a passion for safety; it means demonstrating that passion and driving it through the organization from the top and engaging with line managers and the workforce. This step includes developing the skills and tools senior and line leaders need to drive safety across the organization.
- Integrating Safety
The final step is integrating Total Safety Culture(TSC) principles into all existing safety management systems. If employees believe the existing safety management systems are ineffective, they are less likely to participate in safety through those systems. SPS can help redesign any of your current systems to incorporate the TSC principles that encourage and reinforce employees’ participation in safety.