The rapid evolution of the global market, via industrialization and automation has not only influenced the profitability of companies but also has greatly impacted the workers’ quality of life. With this scenario, one of the biggest challenges faced in the manufacturing industry is creating a safety culture and boosting appropriate safety behaviour within the organization.

Safety culture is nothing but an amalgamation of values, standards, morals, and norms of acceptable behaviour. It is definitely an uphill battle to make this culture a part of the company’s DNA and it demands company-wide effort and a strong policy to reap its big rewards. Prioritizing safety not only confines to preventing accidents and injuries, but also in turn sustains employee commitment, enhances belongingness, maximizes productivity, builds morale, and boosts overall employee wellbeing.

Safety culture is a shared vision and the final result of what constitutes a safe working environment with the combined efforts of employees, management, leadership team, and the organization. It is more of maintaining a self-disciplined approach towards following safety rules than just a policy or legislative and regulatory requirements. Safety culture is the combination of core set of values and behaviours that prioritizes safety and protection at the workplace.

Here we list a few factors to help create safety culture in the manufacturing industry:

1. Safety to become a part of the daily routine

Safety should become the company’s daily routine and should not be treated as a separate entity. Promoting a safety attitude in all the employees will cultivate safety culture, encourages ongoing commitment to replace unsafe practices within the organization, and prevents accidents. An effective safety culture demands behavioural changes from the top management to the manufacturing floor.

2. Fixing safety issues through a process

It is essential to educate all the employees on the importance of reporting accidents, finding the root cause, fixing the problem and learning from the mistake. Proper training should be provided to all on the safety procedures as well as people should be nominated to take the responsibility and accountability for executing the same. A sense of commitment to follow the safety initiatives should be evoked in each and everyone in the organization. 

3.Define safety responsibilities and make it a team effort

A safety committee involving a mix of employees from top management to shop floor employees has to be created and the responsibilities have to be shared to imbibe a sense of belongingness in the employees. This will be a platform to identify the safety challenges as well as address them as a team. This team effort will inspire all the other employees to understand the safety vision of the organization to develop a strong safety culture and behaviour.

4.Introduce rewards and recognitions

Organizations should motivate their employees to follow the safety instructions and report any safety mishap without trying to hide or under-report it. Going a step further, management can as well recognize the safety champions within the organization and reward them. Recognizing the everyday safety record and celebrating the success of safety initiatives will keep the employees inspired to do more.

5.Get the leadership team on board

It is true that encouraging safety culture often starts with people in the leadership team, and then trickles down to every person in the company. Safety culture should be supported from the top to down. Managers and production floor supervisors are the safety heroes, who stand as a model for other workers to follow day-to-day safety practices.

Final Thoughts

Establishing a safety culture in an organization will aid in recognizing safe and unsafe behaviour, amend poorly designed organizational systems, which can prevent work-related injuries and accidents. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of both the employer and the employees to create a comfortable, safe and healthy place to work.