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| The Last Word |  |
A message from the director of Human Resources
The importance of a "safety culture"
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Gerard McDonald |
While the university is not an industrial enterprise, many of our operations have significant levels of safety risk associated with them. The mere size, diversity and uniqueness of our workplace, combined in many cases with older generation facilities and equipment, mean we must always be diligent when it comes to personal safety. Whether the risk is great or small, all employees face the potential of some form of injury in our workplace.
The
university’s safety record is a reasonably good one. While
we have experienced 23 lost-time accidents so far in 2002-03, most of
these have fortunately been short term in nature, and very few employees
have been away from work for more than two or three days. However,
we should ask ourselves – is this good enough?
There is always room for improvement. In an ideal world, of course,
we would have no accidents in our workplace. In reality, this is
probably not possible on a sustained, long-term basis. Despite our
best efforts, accidents do sometimes happen. However, the experience
of other organizations may be instructive. Hibernia, for example,
has not experienced a lost-time accident in over two years.
If you talk with organizations who are leaders in the area of safety, you will inevitably hear them talk about their “safety culture”. What do they mean? Can we learn anything from them that may guide us in our every day work as individual employees in a university setting? In such organizations, my experience has been you will find employees who share a strong commitment to some key values and beliefs around safety. These include the following:
1. Safety is Job One — Senior management are visible champions of the safety agenda, and share a clear commitment to safety as the organization’s number one workplace priority. Employees feel the same way.
2. The goal is zero injuries — One of the hallmarks of a strong safety culture is an embedded, institutionalized belief that all accidents are preventable. Accidents which do occur do not deter the organization but are treated as learning experiences. Sustaining a zero or near-zero accident record is a source of organizational pride and is celebrated.
3. Safety is everyone’s business — Personal safety is seen as a concern and priority for each and every employee, no matter their position, rank, or type of work. Employees share in the responsibility for their own safety, and are concerned for the safety of others.
4. Safety awareness is constant — Safety awareness is a state of mind. Employees are alert to safety risks in their environment at all times, they proactively report potential safety hazards, and they take measures if necessary to prevent injury to others. Safety awareness is internalized to the point it becomes second nature, and becomes part of the employee’s behavior pattern both inside and outside the workplace.
Many
employees are very acquainted with these principles, and practice good
safety. However, if one or more of the above causes you to think
about safety in a different way than in the past, I would encourage you
to consider what you might change or do differently in your everyday activities. I’m
certain that you will benefit. So will the co-workers, students and
family members who are around you.
Comments? Suggestions? E-mail Gerard at Gerard.McDonald@mun.ca