6 Ways to Improve Your Business’s Safety Culture
Your commitment to safety should be one of the core principles of your company’s culture. However, building a strong safety culture takes time and effort. Here are some of the most important actions to take if you want to truly make your business one with an effective safety culture.
1. Make Safety a Top Priority
Jobsite safety should be placed above everything else. Employees are your number one asset, so providing them with safety as your top concern on every project will instill confidence and builds trust. This can also help to reduce costs and improve productivity. Accidents lead to cost overruns and project delays. Safety improvements results in fewer days lost from accidents and injuries.
2. Provide Extensive Training
Proper training is the simplest way to help improve your company’s safety culture. It shows your workers that you are dedicated to their wellbeing. Safety training should be a continuous and ongoing effort to help reinforce best practices. Ongoing training will allow workers to better retain what they’ve been taught and keep safety at the forefront.
3. Get Workers Involved
Put together a safety committee with employees from all levels of the business, to review and update your company’s safety program, craft job site-specific safety plans, and help identify potential hazards. This committee should develop a corrective action plan with employee input. All workers should be aware of the plan to ensure proper execution.
An accident response team should be established for each jobsite with employees who have some basic first aid training. They should know what steps to take in the event an injury occurs to mitigate any existing hazards and administer first aid to injured workers.
Workers who are involved in the process of building and improving your safety culture are more likely to take safety seriously and communicate concerns.
4. Increase Accountability
Everyone who steps foot on the jobsite is responsible for safety, not just your safety managers and those in charge. Workers should know that unsafe practices put not only themselves in danger, but those around them.
Safety rules and failure to follow consequences must be clearly defined and explained to everyone on the site. Empower employees to speak up and report unsafe conditions.
5. Offer Rewards and Corrections
Use incentives by rewarding workers for adhering to safe work practices, attending safety meetings, wearing personal protective equipment, making safety suggestions and reporting hazards.
Be cautious with an incentive plan that rewards workers for going a certain amount of days without an accident, because it may lead to underreporting.
6. Hold Inspections and Safety Meetings
Job sites should be inspected before, after, and throughout each workday to address any safety concerns, identify potential hazards, and monitor workers to ensure safe conditions.
Hold safety meetings before a work days to go over scheduled tasks and the safety procedures to be followed. Discuss concerns and acknowledge the good practices observed from the previous day.
There is always room for safety culture improvement. Implementing procedures that reinforce your commitment takes time, employee engagement and adjustments.
In addition to a safety program, make sure that your New Mexico business is protected with a comprehensive insurance plan as well as risk management and loss control services. Not all incidents can be prevented, but you can reduce their likelihood and ensure that everyone will be protected when they do occur.
About Daniels Insurance, Inc.
At Daniels Insurance, Inc., we have a unique understanding of the risks that businesses like yours face on a regular basis. With the backing of our comprehensive coverages and our dedication to customer service and quick claims resolution, your business will be fully protected. For more information, contact us today at (855) 565-7616.