Safety Culture

What is Safety Culture

Organisational culture is often described as ‘the way we do things around here’. It reflects a set of shared assumptions that guide the behaviours of an organisation’s members including management and employees.

Safety culture is a component of an organisation’s culture. It reflects individual, group and organisational safety attitudes, norms, and behaviours in relation to safety and how risks are managed within the organisation. It is often described as the sum of everything that an organisation does in pursuit of safety (The Joint Commission, 2021).

All companies have a safety culture. However, not all companies have succeeded in achieving a positive safety culture. A strong safety culture fosters positive safety behaviours in the workplace. In companies with a positive safety culture, safety is viewed as a core value and not a compliance requirement. Further, safety is integrated into every aspect of the organisation. Failure by leadership to create an effective safety culture is often cited as a contributing factor to many types of adverse events and accidents.

Safety Culture and Safety Climate

The terms safety culture and safety climate are often used interchangeably. Safety culture refers to the overall safety values and behaviours of an organisation. Safety climate refers to the perceived value placed on safety in an organisation at a particular point in time.

Indicators of a Positive Safety Culture

Indicators of a positive safety culture include:

• Safety is valued by everybody.
• There is a strong management commitment to safety – management lead by example, safety priorities are visible and demonstrated in decision making.
• There is accountability for safety, with clear responsibilities assigned to both employees and management.
• Unsafe behaviours are not accepted (staff hold each other to account in relation to unsafe behaviour).
• High levels of employee involvement in safety initiatives.
• Strong two-way communication and consultation around safety and health in the workplace.
• Trust in safety systems.
• High levels of reporting (safety events, near misses and concerns).
• Non-punitive response to errors (i.e., safe to speak up, safe to make mistakes).
• Reporting is encouraged.
• There is open communication about safety concerns.
• Induction OSH training is provided to all staff.
• Additional mandatory OSH training is provided to all staff as relevant to the context of their work.
• Safety training and education is tailored to specific roles and risks.
• Strong compliance with safety procedures.
• Safety committee meetings are well attended.
• PPE is available/accessible and used where appropriate.
• The company is continuously learning and changing/improving.
• Low ill health rates.
• Low or no accidents.

Creating a Positive Safety Culture

For a workplace to have a good safety and health culture in place, the entire workforce must share the same values about safety and health. 

Creating a positive safety culture in the workplace is about:

• Developing a companywide philosophy focussed on injury and illness prevention in the workplace.
• Promoting safety.
• Ensuring the correct standards and procedures are in place and that workers follow these standards.
• Encouraging everybody to take responsibility for their safety attitudes and behaviours.
• Challenging unsafe safety behaviours.
• Embedding safety culture into training and quality improvement processes.
• Encouraging leadership to adopt behaviours that demonstrate safety values – for example, encouraging reporting of safety events, near misses and concerns.
• Engaging staff at all levels in risk management.
• Learning from what goes well and what goes wrong.

Safety Culture Maturity

Safety Culture Maturity refers to the developmental stages of an organization's approach to safety, reflecting how safety is perceived, prioritized, and integrated into daily operations.  A mature safety culture means that safety is deeply embedded in the organization's values, behaviours, and decision-making processes.

The safety culture of an organisation cannot be created and/or improved overnight. It develops over time because of history, work environment, the workforce, health and safety practices, and management leadership. The provision of training to workers and management about work-related health and safety hazards helps to develops to foster a safety culture.

A good safety culture needs to be promoted by senior management and called out in safety policy documentation. Further, senior management needs to demonstrate their commitment to safety culture and lead by example. Management may need training in relation to developing their safety leadership skills and communicating effectively about safety values and behaviours. The board of directors also have a role (where applicable) in creating a strong safety culture.

Measuring Safety Culture

There are different methods for measuring safety culture, including surveys, focus groups, behaviour observations, document reviews and audits.

The Safety Climate Tool (SCT) developed by the HSE UK measures the attitudes and perceptions of the workforce about health and safety against eight safety climate factors. For more information on different tools and techniques, please see the EU- OSHA review of different tools ‘Occupational Safety and Health culture assessment - A review of main approaches and selected tools’. 

Further Information

• Safety Culture (https://www.hsa.ie/eng/topics/human_factors/safety_culture/)
• The benefits of Creating a Positive Safety Culture (https://www.hsa.ie/eng/topics/work_safely/benefits_of_creating_a_postive_safety_culture)
• Behaviour Based Safety Guide (https://www.hsa.ie/eng/publications_and_forms/publications/safety_and_health_management/behaviour_based_safety_guide2023.pdf)
• A Guide to Maintaining Best Practices in Safety and Health (https://www.hsa.ie/eng/publications_and_forms/publications/safety_and_health_management/best_practices_in_safety_guide.pdf