The Key to Safety Success? Commitment.

Safety professionals spend a great deal of time analyzing what defines an outstanding safety culture. Is it having a great safety manual? Providing the best training and tools? Having a knowledgeable safety team? All of these are vital resources that are needed to develop a great safety program, but they do not define a great safety culture.

A true safety culture entails a change in beliefs of all members of your team. If there are pockets in an organization that are not “all in” with each of the resources defined above, a great safety culture is impossible. The culture can improve, can be very good, but can never reach the level that will be attained when there is true commitment from all levels and individuals.

Commitment from corporate leadership includes providing funding to develop resources at all levels that support the core values of safety. This level provides the foundation on which to build a culture. By investing financially and modeling their commitment through their actions, they can lay a strong support system that will weather challenges that inevitably arise during this process.

The safety team partners with both leadership and field personnel to develop safety policies and best practices that provide the necessary knowledge, training, and support for the remainder of the team to be successful. It is not the job of the safety team to drive safety, but to provide a support system at all levels to allow all individuals in the team to protect themselves, as well as those with whom they work.

Project management and field leaders drive a true safety culture. They set expectations for what is to take place on every project every day. This is true in terms of both safety and productivity; what is important enough to emphasize and measure on a daily basis, gets done. True leaders at this level model behaviors and observe the behaviors of others on their site to provide the safest working environment possible.

The crux of personal safety comes down to individual responsibility. Each individual has to commit to unselfishly ensuring not only personal safety, but the safety of those around them. Not just on their team or those who work for the same company, but for all employees on a jobsite.

It doesn’t matter whether it is a crew of four or 400 – true commitment will drive a safety culture to unbelievable levels. At Faith Technologies, it’s a commitment we work to model each day.