Page 66 - Occupational Health & Safety, September 2019

Employee Gifts & Incentives
Is Your Organization Ready to Build a Culture of Safety?
Six steps to turning your safety program into a safety culture.
BY DONNA CHROBAK
Safety in the workplace has long been a priority for all types of organizations. In manufacturing or construc- tion environments, where employees work with heavy machinery, automation, or warehousing, potential safety hazards are more obvious. In an office environment, the safety hazards may not be as easy to detect, but they are poten- tially just as dangerous.
Many hazards, such as trips or falling, fire, and stress, can exist in any environment. The risk of these may be greater in one environment than the other, but there are potential safety issues in all of them. Other hazards, such as being hurt by machinery or getting hit by a moving vehicle are more likely to happen in certain environments versus others (your chances of getting hit by a moving vehicle in an office environment, while not impos- sible, is highly unlikely). Regardless of the environment, where there are people, there are potential safety hazards, and each
should be addressed by your organization’s safety strategy.
How then, can you build an effective safety program when the potential safety hazards in any given environment can be so different? How do you build a program that permeates through- out your organization, no matter where employees are located? How do you create a standard of safety that employees will em-
brace and practice with regularity?
The answer is that you start by building a culture of safety.
Using a safety incentive program can help drive engagement, communication, and safe behavior that is aligned with the orga- nizational culture. Here are six key steps to help you determine if your organization is ready to build a culture of safety, and how to get the ball rolling.
Know When your Organization is Ready
Most organizations today understand the growing importance
62 Occupational Health & Safety | SEPTEMBER 2019
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