3.2 Health and Safety Culture Flashcards
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) suggest that the safety culture of an organisation could be described as:
“the ideas and beliefs that all members of the organisation share about risk, accidents
and ill health”.
Some key aspects of an effective culture include:
Management commitment
Visible management
Good communications
Active employee participation
Effective health and safety training
Management commitment should be demonstrated by
the proportion of resources
(time, money, people) and support allocated to health and safety management and by
the relative status of health and safety against other business priorities such as
production, cost etc.
Following a significant increase in accidents, a campaign is planned to improve the health and safety culture of an organisation.
Identify reasons why the current safety procedures may not have been followed. (8)
lack of management commitment
unrealistic targets
lack of adequate resources
lack of adequate communication and consultation
failure to provide necessary training and information inadequate levels of supervision and monitoring repetitive nature of the tasks
environmental factors such as noise and inadequate lighting.
Identify the factors that might cause a positive health and safety culture in an organisation to decline. (8)
lack of visible leadership and commitment
loss of key personnel
the lack of effective communication
health and safety not given priority
lack of consultation with and involvement of the workforce
failure by management to implement and maintain risk controls or investigate accidents
poor working environment
inadequate welfare facilities
unrealistic and unachievable targets
presence of a blame culture
high staff turnover
external influences such as a downturn in the economy leading to job insecurity
Following a significant increase in accidents, a campaign is planned to improve the health and safety culture of an organisation.
Identify how the organisation might ensure that the campaign is effectively communicated to, and understood by employees. (8)
objectives made clear appropriate language jargon should be avoided variety of means of communication commitment of senior management to the campaign allocation of responsibilities consultation with the workforce regular feedback updates on the progress of the campaign review on completion