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David Bennion BSc(Hons); Tech IOSH; SIIRSM RSP; ACIEH;

DipEnvNEBOSH MInstLM; CIHM; AMIIAIHSEQ Professional/Director

Embedding a Safety Culture?

DGB Health and Safety Ltd (Est 2016)

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At the heart of an efficient and profitable business providing quality services or products is a clearly defined business model with clear reporting lines and a clear brief.

Within a successful business model embedded is a safety culture at all levels of the workforce from the CEO through to the general staff. Those in the most senior position must lead by example.

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Failure to effectively manage health and safety has a serious impact on any business operational effectiveness.

• Relaxing of safe working• Poor quality safety training or not seen as a priority• Near Miss recording is missed and not deemed relevant• Accident or incident rates increase• Moral of workforce drops and some people leave• Senior Management do not lead by example • Lack of meaningful safety tours and audits• Workers are not effectively consulted on safety matters• Production becomes King and safety secondary.• Safety violations become acceptable normal working practice.

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Consultation with workers is a key component in embedding a safety culture. Consultation can be both formal and informal however by consulting the workforce you get a better understanding of the challenges which workers face and with their knowledge of the process together you can arrive at a safe and efficient way to manage health and safety. You also have a greater buy in from employees and ownership of the process.

In the next two slides we will consider both formal and informal consultation

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Formal Consultation:

• Through training and development of staff skills which are aligned to operational needs.

• Participation in safety committee meetings in which health and safety concerns can be raised.

• Direct consultation with employees at team meetings in which health and safety is on the agenda.

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Informal Consultation:

• Involvement of employees in the safety process of the company.• Involving employees in carrying out risk assessments – they do the

job regularly so may point out concerns you could miss. (never underrate this!)

• Involve employees in safety circles to contribute to problem solving exercises

• Facilitate proactive monitoring of safety by encouraging employees to report hazards, near misses and safety improvements.

• Having day to day discussions with employees through ad-hoc safety tours and involvement in audit monitoring.

• Involvement of employees in accident investigations and debriefs.• Involvement of employees in developing systems of work.

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As you can see there are many ways to embed a safety culture in a business. A happy workforce is a safe workforce.

The HSE has produced a guidance document HSG48 called “Reducing error and improving behaviour” It has some useful information on behavioural safety.

Safety Culture is a vast subject which covers areas around machine safety, environmental safety and fail safe systems – these slides have given a broad interface between senior management and employees in managing safety.

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This presentation is a very basic outline. As a business you will need to determine the level of training required by staff to maintain a safe and protected business operations.

In no way does this presentation represent a suitable and sufficient training package for staff as every business has different needs thus no liability can be sought against the owner of this material.

Remember it is the business owners responsibility to have a suitable and sufficient risk management plan in place, to keep it up to date and provide “competent” training for staff to fulfil their employed duties with regards health and safety.

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Contact: David Bennion

Mobile: 07900431649E-mail:dgbhealthandsafety@btinternet.comWeb:http://www.dgbhealthandsafety.uk

There is a comments box on the website if you have any questions.

To find out the services on offer go the services page on my website.

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Thank you for

watching