Zero-Injury Workplace Culture vs. Safety Culture

Within the occupational safety and health arena, there has been a moving trend to a zero-injury objective in many industries of the United States. Associated with this objective comes the development and promotion of a safety culture management system. A few reasons for this change is the focus upon targeted training and the minimization of unsafe behaviors.

This webinar will focus on evolving a zero incident workplace culture within any organization; rather an existing or not. We will discuss the pro’s and con’s of a implementing a zero incident workplace culture and describe how to determine if you are doing it right.

A zero injury workplace safety cultures consist of shared beliefs, practices, and attitudes that exist within an organization. Culture is the atmosphere created by those beliefs, attitudes, etc., which shape our behavior. An organizations safety culture is the result of a number of factors that include, but not limited to:

• Management and employee norms, assumptions and beliefs;
• Management and employee attitudes;
• Values, myths, stories;
• Policies and procedures;
• Supervisor priorities, responsibilities and accountability;
• Production and bottom line pressures vs. quality issues;
• Actions or lack of action to correct unsafe behaviors;
• Employee training and motivation; and
• Employee involvement or "buy-in."

Creating this culture takes time, patience and dedicated resources. It is frequently a multi-year process. A series of continuous process improvement steps can be followed to create a safety culture. Employer and employee commitment are hallmarks of a true safety culture where safety is an integral part of daily operations.