the most critical questions about how to improve HSE culture

 in continuing talking about the safety and health field today we will ask a critical question that is why HSE culture?

Why HSE culture

It has been recognized throughout all industries that workers’ behaviors toward safety present the most common cause of incidents and accidents.

 It has been discovered that 98% of an occupational accident occurred due to unsafe actions so reducing those actions will help the organization to reduce the number of accidents excessively throughout changing the employees’ risky behaviors to safe behaviors. 

The steps that each organization needs to take to change their employee's behavior can be deferred from one organization to another and the difference will concentrate on the HSE culture that exists within the organization itself so developing and enhancing your company’s HSE culture will go an extended way on reducing the number of accidents you've got within the organization. 

According to the most recent HSE studies promoting HSE culture can be done through “DROFTINGS” which is an abbreviation for several steps that organizations can take to promote HSE culture at their workplaces.

DRAFTING refers to

• Discipline: it is often motivation or demotivation but it's to be the last step you apply because it doesn’t give the right impression

• Reward: issuing a rewarding scheme will motivate your employees to try their job safely

• Open Inquiry: each system should have open discussions with its employees and advise its employees on the improvement of safety

• Facilitate: the organization should facilitate the workplaces by providing better resources for the workers 

• Training: one of the most important tools that an organization has to implement to raise the awareness of its employees and educate them on how to do their job safely.

• Involving: the organization must involve its employees altogether HSE activities so that the workers own the activity and therefore the procedures and develop the ownership of HSE in the least levels.

• No blame culture: the organization must establish a No Blame culture within the workplaces

• Giving priority to safety which equals production

If the organization applied all of the above steps and activities, the HSE culture will be promoted, safe behaviors will be implemented and accidents will be reduced.

All the above activities are very generic and their application in the workplace will differ upon the organization field type, hazards included in the operation, workers’ knowledge and skills, and the work environment.

Developing and promoting a safety culture is not a one-day process and it usually takes years to be developed and promoted to the level that allows employees to take ownership of their safety and others however it is a beneficial process that will enhance all the organization performance.

The innovative solutions and promotion methodology developed and implemented by the safety department of the organization will go a long way on accelerate the HSE culture promotion process which eventually will ease the safety department's job and therefore enhance their skills and abilities.

Promoting the HSE culture will help organizations in all areas of interest due to building a working environment of teamwork, cooperation, and excellence.

The better the culture, the higher the performance!!!

Tags: HSE Article