When No One’s Watching… Understanding the concept of Safety Culture

2. When No One’s Watching… Understanding the concept of Safety Culture

3. Ground Rules Don’t Take Copious Notes Ask Frequent Questions Feel Free to Stop By our Booth if you have Questions or want more info… We are likely not to be able to get through all of the content!

4. What Event Lead to the Term “Safety Culture” • Challenger Disaster • Bhopal India – Union Carbide • Chernobyl • Titanic • 3-Mile Island

5. What does the Term Safety Culture actually mean??? • I don’t know • What my people do • The way my organization acts • Nothing, it’s not a valid concept • Shared beliefs about safety

6. What is safety culture? A constituent of Workplace Culture The key component to determining if a workplace safety process is successful or not (Erickson 1994, Petersen 2001, Krause, 2006 etc…) An idea that is not difficult to understand, but is difficult to define A LEADING INDICATOR

7. What is a Leading Indicator • A process-oriented metric that predicts success or failure • A validated measure that has value by not relying on outcomes • A metric that can be used to evaluate a process before outcomes occur

8. The Term Safety Culture Used over and over and over (53,000,00 Google Hits September 23, 2012) Not well understood by many in the field of safety… How do you know if you have a safety culture or not? Generally used to describe an overall sense of they way it feels like employees, supervisors, and managers engage in safety

9. A Key Component of Workplace Culture? Some authorities completely discount the concept of “safety culture” Others view it as a component of overall workplace culture Many Safety Professionals view it as a distinct entity in and of itself Some advocate that it is a leading indicator and others state it is lagging

10. Our Description of Safety Culture A CRITICAL PART OF THE OVERALL CULTURAL FRAMEWORK OF AN ORGANIZATION The way we do things around here What employees do when no one is watching The beliefs, actions, behaviors, values, and traditions of safety activities for a company tied together with a historical context

11. Common Misconceptions of Safety Culture Only set by the management Safety processes such as employee engagement initiatives or Behavior Based Safety will immediately improve the culture Culture can’t be controlled or changed, it just is…

12. Where does Safety Culture Really Come From? The Larger Organizational Culture The Founder Effect! Regional and Societal Norms Industry Specific Values and Traditions Environmental or Objective Driven Culture Management Influence (management often rose through the ranks and was selected because they conform to the culture)

13. How to Change/Improve an Existing Safety Culture

14. Let’s Talk about Employee Motivation What are the two primary motivators for employees to work safely??? If you want to get different results… change the fundamental motivation.

15. If you want Different Results… Do Something Different Transition from a culture of blame to one of accomplishment Move from Fault-Finding to Fact-Finding Create a fully Engaging Culture

16. How is Safety Culture Usually Evaluated? Safety Surveys Safety Cultural Interviews Behavioral and Situational Observation Each of these evaluates a slightly different manifestation of safety culture (perception, beliefs, and actions)

17. Has your current company Used a perception survey? • Yes – Both Safety and Engagement • Yes – Just Engagement • Yes – Just Safety • No – None at All

18. Using a Perception Survey Allows for Anonymous Involvement of Employees Automatically Becomes Empirical Not Difficult to Administer Typical Participation can be as High as 90% According to the Petersen Study (2001) is the indicator that is directly linked with outcome performance

19. A survey can accomplish… Quantified Culture Evaluation Allows an Organization to Determine Gaps in Perception Between Management and Employees Establish A Baseline to Measure the Results of Safety Initiatives Against Demonstrates Concern for Employees Can Benchmark with Other Organizations Provides information on a number of Demographics

20. What To Look For in Results • Internal comparisons • External comparisons • Strengths or weaknesses in SMS • Gaps in perceptions based on: • Employee Tenure • Employee Grade • Locations

22. What have we found with regards to Safety Culture from our CARES Survey™

23. Your Safety Training is Effective. (4.23) • Strongly Disagree • Somewhat Disagree • Neither Agree or Disagree • Somewhat Agree • Strongly Agree

24. Your Employees are Engaged in Safety. (4.13) • Strongly Disagree • Somewhat Disagree • Neither Agree or Disagree • Somewhat Agree • Strongly Agree

25. Management Takes Ownership for Safety. (4.08) • Strongly Disagree • Somewhat Disagree • Neither Agree or Disagree • Somewhat Agree • Strongly Agree

26. Employees Receive Sufficient Feedback and Coaching for Their Safety Activities. (4.07) • Strongly Disagree • Somewhat Disagree • Neither Agree or Disagree • Somewhat Agree • Strongly Agree

27. Supervisors Take Ownership for Safety and Model Safe Behavior. (3.91) • Strongly Disagree • Somewhat Disagree • Neither Agree or Disagree • Somewhat Agree • Strongly Agree

28. Your Company is Ethical and Provides Opportunities for Advancement. (3.83) • Strongly Disagree • Somewhat Disagree • Neither Agree or Disagree • Somewhat Agree • Strongly Agree

29. Production Demands are not Valued more than Safety. (3.73) • Strongly Disagree • Somewhat Disagree • Neither Agree or Disagree • Somewhat Agree • Strongly Agree

30. Employees are Comfortable Reporting Accidents, Injuries, and Near Misses. (3.65) • Strongly Disagree • Somewhat Disagree • Neither Agree or Disagree • Somewhat Agree • Strongly Agree

31. What are we seeing with companies that have taken more than one CARES Survey™ • When conducted in Conjunction with BBS or other Safety Culture Improvement Initiatives… • 1) The Safety Culture Score Improves from 10% - 15% • 2) Injuries Decline 35% - 65% • 3) Production and Profitability is not Impacted

32. Other Trends/Commonalities • Business Acquisitions/Divestitures • Management Support for Safety Appears to have Paramount Importance • Organizations with the strongest Safety Cultures tend to • Be smaller organizations • Perceived to have strong Safety Departments • Consistently Rank Production VS Safety as the lowest category

33. Other CARES Survey™ Results Safety Culture Norms Based on Tenure not as Divergent as other Demographics Gaps Based on Employee Class can be Significant or Flat Gaps Based on Locations and Departments are Typically very Large

34. Why Conduct Interviews? To Gain Additional Knowledge About the Safety Culture To Obtain Specific Information To Validate the Results of Specific Initiatives To Provide Relevant Location Information

35. Why Observe Behaviors? To Validate the Results from Surveys and Interviews To Obtain the “REST-OF-THE-STORY” To Accumulate Any Other Relevant Information

36. What are some indicators of a Strong Safety Culture? Management that Consistently Sets the Example An Organization that is Willing to Ask and Answer Hard Questions An Empowered Workforce that is Able to Make Meaningful Contributions to the Safety Process

37. Strong Cultural Characteristics Continued… High-Functioning Safety Committees Well Written Safety Mission and Values Statements A Professional Safety Department Not “JUST” Starting Organizational Meetings with Safety

38. Strong Cultural Characteristics Continued… A Process of Self Auditing, Risk Assessment, or Formalized Hazard Identification Presence of a Plan for Mergers, Acquisitions, and Sale of Business Units Linkage of Safety to all Levels of the Business

39. Weak Cultural Characteristics • Using only lagging indicators to measure performance • These measure failure rates • They manage safety by looking at what has happened not what will happen • May encourage injury hiding • Recordability or Severity is influenced by many factors AFTER the even

40. Weak Characteristics cont… Poor Incentive Programs A vigilant focus on the outcomes not the process Too much safety training Accident Investigations that result in causal factors like “wasn’t paying attention, needs to be more careful”

41. Weak Characteristics cont… • Use of Punishment in Accountability Standards • Punishment does not reinforce anything • Punishment becomes part of a repeating cycle • Has the use of punishment ever inspired anyone?

42. Accountability vs Punishment • Punishment can become an organizational value • Punishment is needed under certain circumstances… however, it will only generate malicious compliance (at best) • Balance is KEY!

43. A couple of Examples that Government is Beginning to Get It OSHA Letter of Interpretation FAA Rules for Air Traffic Controllers

44. WHAT ABOUT CULTURE VERSUS CLIMATE? Safety Climate and Safety Culture are often used as one in the same concept…, but there are significant differences Culture is the underlying belief system that drives innate actions. Culture is generally a company concept (but not always) Climate is a specific measure in time that describes how things are at a location or other sub-unit level.

46. To Create an Optimal Condition after Culture has been Evaluated Begin to Approach Safety With Integrity!

47. Integrity • Integrity is defined as always being true to your core values • Doing the right thing when no one is watching • Demonstrating a repeatable and predictable pattern of always engaging in actions that are ethical, moral, and always contribute to the betterment of society

48. Safety • Safety represents the preservation of life, health, and well-being. It is the fundamental condition of being protected against physical, financial, occupational, educational or other types of failure, damage, error, accidents, harm or any other event which is not desirable. • When done the right way, Safety must inherently have Integrity

49. Some Classic Examples of words Lacking Integrity Elliott Spitzer Tiger Woods Pete Rose Bill Clinton Mark Sanford Richard Nixon Others?

50. Consider these Words Safety is our Most Important Value Be mindful of risk all the time Always be careful Be aware of your surrounds at all times Expect the Unexpected If it can go wrong … it will?