By Tim Baxter, Road Safety and Loss Prevention Specialist
Safety culture is the ways in which safety is managed in the workplace, and often reflects “the attitudes, beliefs, perceptions and values that employees share in relation to safety”.
Every organization has a safety culture, whether it be good or bad. Obviously, counties should strive to have a good safety culture. A good, positive safety culture will reduce accidents and injuries, reduce claims and lawsuits, and generally provide a good safe work environment for your employees. Safety culture is all encompassing in county road departments meaning that not only should employee safety be considered but also public safety when it comes to providing safe public roads and bridges as well as good road and bridge signing for the motoring public. A good, positive safety culture is also critical in all other county offices.
We present safety meetings to counties then too often hear afterwards that the highway superintendent, foreman, county board member, etc. is complaining about following the proper safety procedures and instructs the employees to proceed as they always have in the past. This type of attitude from management encourages a very poor safety culture and one that will continue to get employees injured or possibly killed.
Since there are a large number of complaints about safety, I have a complaint I would like to share. One of the biggest complaints we always
hear is the county does not have the funds to provide for the proper safety procedures, yet many times road departments return thousands of unused funds at the end of the fiscal year. Having served as a highway superintendent for many years, I understand the need for some budget carryover, but there are usually funds available for safety needs. Using the lack of funds excuse will not work on signing lawsuits as plaintiff attorneys will review the past several years’ road budgets and see there was funding available for signing improvements. Plus, there are grants available, NIRMA ASSIST grants, to assist in purchasing safety supplies and materials. Employee safety should be one of the first budget concerns instead of the old adage “if we have the funds”.
Safety committees are a crucial step in developing a positive safety culture. Establishing a road department safety committee is a great place to start for road departments. Too many times a county wide safety committee is unable to perform the quarterly shop audits that should be required, or the committee members are unaware of what issues road departments deal with. Quarterly road department safety committee meetings reviewing past incidents, future safety training, ideas for safety improvements, etc. would go a long way towards developing the proper safety attitudes.
A positive safety culture includes the following:
- Communication is open at all levels of the organization and feedback is seen as vital to improving safety processes.
- Individuals at all levels focus on what can be done to prevent injuries or illnesses.
- There is a commitment to safety regardless of all other concerns in the business.
- People and their well-being are valued. The focus is on protecting people, not the bottom line.
- All personnel, especially commissioners, supervisors, highway superintendents, foremen, etc., demonstrate their commitment to safety by following all safety processes and procedures, just as they should be instructing their employees to do.
Please contact Tim if you have any questions at 402-310-4417 or tim@nirma.info. Be safe.
