Prevention of Work-Related Health & Safety Issues
Safety Climate and Safety Culture
Safety climate is the perceived value on the level of safety existing in an organization at a particular time. The attitudes, values, norms, and behaviours of the employees of the organization are key influencers of the inconsistent nature of the safety climate. Safety culture expresses the level of engagement towards safety and the degree to which employees act personally responsible towards the safety of an organization (Queensland Government, 2021).
Development in the approach to safety and health of employees
Researches have proven that the approach to the employee safety and health of organizations has evolved over a period of time from reactive approach to proactive approach (Haslam et al., 2016).
Adopting a proactive approach towards the safety and health of employees has proven to have benefited the organizations economically, as such management focuses on identifying losses in order to search for new methods of safety culture improvement. Further assessment of the existing safety culture has assisted organizations in identifying problems and areas which require improvement (Dibai et al., 2020).
The DuPont Bradley Curve is a useful tool in tracking the evolution of the safety culture and as shown in Figure 1, maturity of the safety culture from reactive to proactive in four stages. When moving from reactive to proactive (from left to right of the Figure) the behavioural change of the organization is clearly noted (Dibai et al., 2020).
Figure 1- The DuPont Bradley Curve
Source: (Dibai et al., 2020)
Initiating & Maintaining a Health and Safety Management System
An organization’s management leadership is considered one of the major contributions towards influencing employee perception towards the organizational safety management system, which drives the employee’s behavior and decision-making while on the job (O'Toole, 2002).
This was practiced in the organization of my experience, wherein the senior management immediately adopted necessary measures on the first phase of the COVID outbreak itself, by taking immediate decisions, setting up objectives, and communicating countermeasures in protecting the employees and customers. Employees were made aware on the new health policies and rules, introduced methods for addressing employee grievances related to pandemic or other reasons, and initiated required training and development via distant learning methods. Further, the task of monitoring compliance for newly set guidelines was conducted constantly.
This organization reaped substantial benefits from the above practices, from increased levels of employee satisfaction on the level of health & safety protection within the organization. Training and development via distant methods inspired employees to be more informative in their job role, gain more skills and acquire more knowledge, all of which motivates their decision-making skills at their job role. Employees were able to develop their knowledge while being in the comforts of a safe and healthy work environment. development.
It is the responsibility of the senior management to establish the organization’s safety and health management system aligned with the organizations’ goals and to demonstrate leadership and commitment towards ensuring the safety and health of the employees (Loeppke et al., 2015).
Figure 2 below, derived from the International Labour Organization guidelines, describes the 5 main elements of a Management System on Occupational Health and Safety which flow from establishing a policy, setting up objectives and communicating, developing and implementing of the strategies, evaluating the success, and continuing its’ improvement.
Figure 2. Main elements of the OSH Management System
Source: (International Labour Organization, 2021)
Video 1 referred to below, is part of the International Labour Organization (ILO’s) Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) guide for labour inspectors and other stakeholders, which describes an OSH Management System.
Video 1 - Controlling safety and health risks in the Industrial Sector
Source: (International Labour Organization, 2019)
References
Dibai, A., Rangel, J., Costa, D., Ottoboni, H., Favaro, R., and Quintero, S. (2020) The Safe Behavior School: Halliburton Strengthens Safety Leadership and Safety Culture in Latin America. Day 1 Mon, July 27, 2020, [online] p.3. Available at: <https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.2118/199486-MS> [Accessed 4 September 2021].
Haslam, C., Ohara, J., Kazi,A., Twumasi, R., Haslam, R. (2016) Proactive occupational safety and health management: Promoting good health and good business, pp.99–108.
Internal Labour Organization. n.d. How can occupational safety and health be managed? (Labour administration and inspection). [online] Available at: <https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/labour-administration-inspection/resources-library/publications/guide-for-labour-inspectors/how-can-osh-be-managed/lang--en/index.htm> [Accessed 3 September 2021].
International Labour Organization, (2019) Controlling safety and health risks in the Industrial Sector. [video] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTQJdV2XheI&t=163s> [Accessed 3 September 2021].
Loeppke, R., Hohn, T., Baase, C., Bunn, W., Burton, W., Eisenberg, B., Ennis, T., Fabius, R., Hawkins, R., Hudson, T., Hymel, P., Konicki, D., Larson, P., McLellan, R., Roberts, M., Usrey, C., Wallace, J., Yarborough, C. and Siuba, J. (2015) Integrating Health and Safety in the Workplace. Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine, 57(5), pp.585-597.
O'Toole, M., (2002) The relationship between employees' perceptions of safety and organizational culture. Journal of Safety Research, [online] 33(2), pp.231-243. Available at: <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022437502000142> [Accessed 1 September 2021].
Queensland Government, (2021) Safety climate and safety culture. Queensland Government. Available at: https://www.worksafe.qld.gov.au/safety-and-prevention/creating-safe-work/safety-leadership-and-culture/safety-climate-and-safety-culture [Accessed September 5, 2021].
Agreed, while adding more points, personal safety, a safe workplace, and safe behaviour are crucial components that employers need to ensure their availability within their businesses, according to a study conducted at the Saxion University of applied sciences' Research Centre Design and Technology on "Safety at Work" (Jonathan, 2016).
ReplyDeleteAccording to this study, it is critical to enforce safety by modifying the working environment and recognizing dangers at work so that workers can avoid risky circumstances (Houten, 2012).
Completely agree, core purpose of having a safety culture is to avoid risk or minimize the impact of the risk on employees, stakeholders , customers and the environment. the health and safety plan will be developed after analyzing primary and secondary data and compliance requirements with the future predictions on probabilities.(Reese, 2017)
DeleteNon-compliance of organizations and their leaders with the occupational health and safety procedures will cause many issues such as lack of protective equipment, lack of knowledge and skills, safe machinery and guidance, labor rules and inspection, work-related disorders, and non-communicable diseases (Kim, Park and Park, 2016).
ReplyDeleteAccepted, Depending on the country law, safety policies and the organization culture , but this has change significantly since 2020, now we are entering a post epidemic era, safety and health will be a key contributor towards employee performance , motivation, employee engagement and retention (Neal and Griffin, 2006).
DeleteYes. Devolved management requires giving employees more power and autonomy (Tang et al., 2015). Employees working in organisations implementing devolved management can experience a high level of autonomy (Tang et al., 2015), which inspires their creative behaviours (Zhang and Bartol, 2010). Under this condition, employees perceiving high level of organisational support are more willing to reciprocate through creativity
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Safety culture involves the whole organization, both internal environment and the macro environment. It involves compliance to training, employee engagement, employee motivation, and employee rewards. For the optimal success, employee engagement is crucial from the all tiers of the organization (Dejoy, 2005).
DeleteYes. In order to maintain the same Occupational Safe and Health Authority has made a coercive approach through fines and citations to get the employers complied with the regulations (Goetsch, 1996).
ReplyDeleteAgreed, yes depending on the country and the organization culture. Once an organization adopts safety, health, and wellness into the corporate culture, how the employer perceive health and safety of the organization will vary from other organizations that simply exhibits safety and health as a compliance tool (Conchie and Donald, 2009).
DeleteWhile considering prevention, it is essential to aware employees about safety environment and the management has to define policies for safety culture(Gadd, 2002). To influencing employee to the safety culture other than providing training and maintaining policies it is better to introduce bonus scheme for lack of accident and taking risk(Sawacha et al ,1999). Collective bonus schemes is possible not to report an accident by colleagues unwilling to lose their bonus(Collinson, 1999)
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Once safety, health and wellness becomes the culture of an organization, the employer, stakeholders, and employees tend to consider safety and health a key criteria and adapts to it, considering the safety of themselves and of others. To get the maximum employee engagement, a safety and health program could provide the best participants with, which will include extrinsic and intrinsic rewards. Extrinsic rewards are more tangible and intrinsic will be psychological(Ryan and Deci, 2000).
DeleteYes, Occupational safety and health should comply with the national laws and regulations, which is, responsibility and duty of the organization. The organization should have strong leadership and commitment in OSH activities and make proper arrangements for the implementation of an OSH management system. The elements such as policy, organizing, planning and implementation, evaluation and action for improvement should be consisted in the OSH system (Jein, 2012).
ReplyDeleteAgreed. OSH programs are developed based on the organizational goals. The full engagement of the management and employees is a necessity for the maximum optimization of the OSH program (Jensen, 2019).
Deletecompletely agree. Without having a ideal Safety culture ,an organization can not achieve the optimal result from the safety management system (Griffin and Neal, 2000).
ReplyDelete