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A resilient safety culture
The well-being of your staff cannot be sacrificed for other priorities such as production, profitability, and convenience.
A s the director of health and safety for an AEC firm, I often find myself asking, “What is our safety culture?” and “What needs to be done to improve it?” Recently, I have been framing these questions around the concept of a resilient culture, i.e., a culture in which safety is a “way of life.” Hallmarks of such cultures are a shared sense of organizational pride and commendable incident rates.
Kate McGee GUEST SPEAKER
potential consequences of an unsafe act – especially those acts where workers have a low perception of risk. To overcome these strong motivational factors, leaders should clearly convey to their staff that safe- ty is an essential component of the work and should not be sacrificed for other priorities. Don’t forget to “lead by example.” Actions speak louder than words and your staff will emulate your behavior. “Getting to a resilient place can be a struggle, especially for firms where safety is an afterthought.”
A resilient culture means continuously improving processes, committed leader and employee interventions, and systematic auditing. However, getting to a resilient place can be a struggle, especially for firms where safety is an afterthought. Regardless of where a firm lies in its journey to a safer workplace, here are some key measures leaders in our industry can focus on to promote a safer workplace: 1)Visible management commitment to safety. Does your staff know they have your support in say- ing no to unsafe work? Are you sure? It’s easy for staff to prioritize the obvious, immediate rewards of production, profitability, and convenience over the
See KATE MCGEE, page 4
THE ZWEIG LETTER May 28, 2018, ISSUE 1250
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