SAFETY
elements of the safety system
will be effective.”
Establishing a positive
and participative safety
culture drives ownership
and innovation. The vast
majority of research in this
area shares another common
element.
The Basic Guide
to System Safety
states, “It
is essential that the safety
function be implemented as
a line function. The safety
organizational elements
within the company is a
staff function that provides
advice and assistance to the
line in their effort to comply
with all established safety
requirements. Safety as a task
must clearly be the function
of the line, or safety will not
succeed.”
Participative safety
The combination of these
suggests that employees are
most likely to behave safely in
the absence of oversight when
they are a part of a positive
and participative safety culture
that promotes ownership,
creativity and innovation
down to the line employees
who perform the work and
provide the service to our
customers on a daily basis.
The best way to create an
environment in which our
workers perform their tasks
15
NOVEMBER 2013
ACT
my personal opinion (which
may be worth a lot less than
the research) suggests that
for employees to continue to
work safely in the absence of
audits, disciplinary action,
safety manual updates and
increased regulation, it would
have to be something that they
personally believe in. It would
have to be something they do
for themselves and not because
of the demands of others.
Consequently, this level
of commitment must be
accomplished through the
establishment of a positive,
strong safety culture.
To support this thesis, I’ll
share a quote from the text
of
Safety Management, Third
Edition
, written by Dan
Peterson: “The culture of the
organization sets the tone
for everything. In a positive
safety culture, it says that
everything you do about safety
is important. In a participative
culture, the organization is
saying to the worker, ‘We
want and need your help.’
Some safety cultures urge
creativity and innovation,
some destroy it. Some cultures
tap the employees for ideas
and help; some force the
employees to never use their
brains at work. Basically, the
culture of the organization is
what determines whether the
THE AUTHOR
Daniel Erwin
is director of
safety for TNT
Crane & Rigging
in Houston.
What if your safety
department was
forced to run on
auto pilot?
safely for the right reasons,
even when no one is watching,
is by building a safety
culture which is more than
manuals, rules and numbers.
The culture must thrive on
participation, encouragement
accountability and sincere
management support.
As an essential element of
our respective cultures, we
must make sure that our field
and line workers are the ones
truly responsible for safety and
not our safety departments.
Only in this way can the field
workforce help avoid the
effects of complacency and
schedule-driven safety that
routinely lead to incidents.
Employees are more prone to
avoid continuing an unsafe act
until the safety auditor arrives,
and may re-think a better plan
on their own when they have
been empowered and given
stewardship over their safety
and that of their co-workers.
If our workforce owns their
safety and understands that
the safety group is there
for support, guidance and
counseling (as opposed to
enforcement and admonition),
all signs point to safe behavior
and continuance of a positive
and participative safety
culture even in the event of
a government-style safety
department shutdown.
■
A true safety
culture
A
s I write this article,
the United States
government is
in shut-down mode. Some
programs and their respective
tasks are on auto-pilot and
continue to function without a
hitch. Some of these programs
are reliant on only-necessary
resources, while the effects
of others are immediately
noticeable as they were
instantly put to a halt. This is
one of several experiences that
could be reviewed to note the
different ways that humans
act in the absence of things
in which we are accustomed.
This has caused me, in a
roundabout way, to consider
how the employees of our
respective companies would
react if suddenly our safety
departments were forced to
shut down. Could we expect
that our employees would
continue to run on auto-pilot
in a safe mode, or would it
instead be a “the cats away and
the mice will play” situation?
Both ample research and
We must make sure our
field and line workers are the
ones truly responsible for safety.
