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Nothing is more devastating to an organization and the families of its workers than when an employee experiences an occupational fatality or life-altering injury. Injuries and death can happen even in workplaces that boast impressive years’ worth of injury free days. You may ask how that would be possible, and the answer is simple…excellence in safety is not only about good policies and procedures; you must have a deep understanding of human error, embrace continual improvement, and always stay aware of limitations to many traditional approaches about occupational safety.
Three traps commonly preventing organizations from fostering learning-centered safety cultures include focusing only on safety problem-solving, over-relying on formulaic safety management, and most importantly, allowing fear to stymie learning within the organization.
If organizations have employees, mistakes will happen, and leaders must abandon the idea that absence of injuries or incidents equals safety. Strong occupational safety leadership both understands and embraces human fallibility. Developing and fostering an environment where employees are free to report and discuss safety mistakes they make, as well as those inherent in well-intentioned, but poorly designed (or absent) hazard controls (policies, procedures, training, machine guards, PPE, etc.), is the most crucial component for organizations to minimize risks.
Developing a learning-centered safety culture takes time and honing of leaders within the organization. It is not a “program” nor a quick fix. It is a long-term commitment and will never guarantee no incidents will occur. While creating a learning-centered safety culture takes tremendous time and purposeful efforts, the long-term payoffs are tremendous, and ultimately lets leaders sleep better at night knowing that risk from hidden problems that lead to incidents are minimized.
Read the full article in the latest issue of fresh Magazine!