In advance of the MENA HSE Forum, to be held from 6-7 September 2022 in Dubai, Wael Amin, head of HSE at Kuwait Energy Egypt, discusses the importance of implementing an effective safety culture
What is safety culture?
There are many contemporary definitions of safety culture. Most are taken from the one given by the Advisory Committee on Safety back in the 1980s which defines it as, “The product of individual and group values, attitudes, competencies, perceptions and patterns of behaviour that determines the commitment to, and the style and proficiency of an organisation’s health and safety management.”
According to OSHA, “Safety cultures consist of shared beliefs, practices, and attitudes that exist at an establishment. Culture is the atmosphere created by those beliefs, attitudes, etc., which shape our behaviour”.
How important is it to create an effective safety culture?
To know clearly the importance of safety culture in the work place we should firstly note the following: The International Labor Organization (ILO) reports that there 2.3mn deaths a year around the world as a result of workplace incidents and work related ill-health. Globally that is an average rate of 13 deaths/100,000 workers. In developed countries the rate lies between 0.5 and 3.5 deaths/100,000 workers, while in emerging economies such as sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and southern Asia the rate rises sharply to around 19 deaths/100,000 workers. Beyond the human tragedy, the economic cost of workplace accidents amounts to around 4% of GDP. Before the Health and Safety at Work act was introduced in the UK in 1974, deaths resulting from workplace accidents were averaging around 650 each year. By 2016/2017 the number had fallen to less than a quarter of this, to 137 deaths.
A strong safety culture ensures that a high level of standards is set for all safety processes. The organisation sets strict processes for reporting, inspections, training and overall safety management. A safety culture is an organisational culture that places a high level of importance on safety beliefs, values and attitudes – and these are shared by the majority of people within the company or workplace. It can be characterised as 'the way we do things around here'.
How would you go about developing a good safety culture, and what factors are necessary for success?
• Treat safety as a core value, and not just a priority. Core values are what you live and breathe every day
• Management commitment – strong management commitment includes effecting prompt and attentive participation in all layers (layered safety interactions), so the safety management system (SMS) becomes more than just a formal exercise to demonstrate compliance with the law. The company actively cooperates at each level in achieving common values and objectives concerning the production operation
• Empowerment – empower individuals to successfully fulfill their safety
responsibilities to themselves, their family, and their coworkers
• Communication – ensure two-way communications and feedback, both topdown and bottom-up
• Continuous improvement – are we better than we were yesterday?
What are the main challenges to creating and maintaining a good safety culture?
• Safety is seen as a barrier rather than a value, and the main focus is on profit
• Autocratic and heavy-handed leadership
• Lack of trust, mainly because of a punitive culture
• Lack of reporting with very few reported incidents/concerns/near misses
• Poor work monitoring and review; performance indicators, audit findings, incident reporting are not used for analysis of SMS effectiveness and for organisational learning
• Poor competence of managers at any level to manage risk.
How does safety culture tie in with the safety management system?
A strong safety culture is generally considered as a vital condition to a wellfunctioning safety management system. This means that you will never have an effective safety management system (policies, procedures, formal plans, deal with risk and safety-related information) without having the safety culture (shared values, beliefs and attitudes about safety, etc.) in place.
For further information about the MENA HSE Forum and to register, see the website at www.hse-forum.com
