While it is the responsibility of business owners, site managers and other PCBUs to ensure a safe workplace for their teams, perhaps a greater challenge lies in instilling and maintaining a positive safety culture within the team itself. Site compliance is one piece of the workplace safety puzzle – the other is devising strategies to ensure teams remain aware of risks, work diligently, and feel psychologically safe in their workplace. Here are three ways to encourage positive employee attitudes to workplace safety.
Involvement in decision making
When updating safety procedures and protocols, identifying solutions to site hazards or determining more appropriate modes of operating that minimise risk, it’s important to consult your team. The best feedback you’ll get is the feedback from people on the job, in the environment daily. Ask your team for their input on proposed and updated safety procedures and protocols, and welcome their honest feedback to help identify any gaps that need addressing. If you decide not to take on board certain feedback, be sure to explain why – your reasoning behind your decision may be respected more if you remain honest and transparent about the process.
This freedom for open discourse also builds a sense of psychological safety among your team. If your team feel comfortable knowing that their honest feedback is valued in important decision-making, the more inclined they may feel to approach you with any thoughts or concerns in future. Clear lines of communication are key to a positive, safe workplace.
Training
Carefully plan your training sessions to ensure employees don’t feel like they are being spoken ‘at’. Aim to proactively schedule training sessions throughout the year, rather than arranging for refresher training after an incident or near miss. In your training sessions, drive home the point that the training is for the benefit of the team rather than the company.
- Plan regular training sessions throughout the year
- Keep up-to-date records of employee certifications and ensure all team members are recertified when necessary
- Aim for shorter training modules (15-30 mins) with a focus on practical (on-the-job) training, to improve information retention and maintain interest.
Recognition
While working safely is expected behaviour of your team, it’s important to recognise positive behaviour. How you incentivise safety in the workplace depends on your team. The act itself helps to instil values of safety among your team and encourage continued positive behaviour. Recognition drives positive reinforcement, which drives safety culture, further driving teams to be more vigilant for public recognition.
At the end of the day, workplace safety takes team effort. SafeWork Australia has a host of resources to guide you on psychological safety and maintaining a safe workplace. For information on our site auditing, inspection and safety systems installation, get in touch here.
