Safety Culture

How Seriously Do Your Workers Take Safety?

You can knock yourself out trying to create a safe workplace, but if your employees don’t take safety seriously, you’re fighting a losing battle.

Good safety attitudes:

  • Protect workers from hazards
  • Reduce accident and injury rates
  • Promote compliance with OSHA regulations
  • Help prepare employees to deal with emergencies
  • Improve the work environment, making your workplace a safer, healthier place to work

When employees have a good safety attitude, they:

  • Take responsibility for their safety
  • Have a genuine concern for the safety and well-being of their co-workers
  • Feel a duty to maintain a safe work environment
  • Keep informed about safety issues
  • Pay attention during safety meetings
  • Participate in safety discussions
  • Follow safety policies and procedures
  • Know how to identify hazards and how to protect against those hazards

When employees have bad or indifferent safety attitudes, they may:

  • Be complacent about safety, not caring about safety meetings or learning about safety in general
  • Cut corners in order to get things done easily or quickly
  • Have a careless disregard for safety rules and procedures
  • Fail to wear required PPE when the supervisor’s back is turned
  • Act recklessly because they either forget or don’t care that their actions could harm someone else
  • Engage in horseplay
  • Come to work fatigued or hung over

What about your workers? Which side are they on? The safe side or the risky side?


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Worker Safety Attitude Assessment

To the best of your knowledge, do your employees:

  • Understand the hazards of their jobs?
  • Know safety policies and rules that apply to their job?
  • Always follow safety rules and procedures?
  • Consider themselves members of a team and take responsibility for their own and co-workers’ safety?
  • Come to work rested and ready to work safely?
  • Wear required PPE without fail?
  • Avoid distractions and concentrate on their work?
  • Keep alert while they work for anything that could go wrong?
  • Report hazards?
  • Report accidents and near misses?
  • Refrain from engaging in horseplay?
  • Refrain from taking shortcuts?
  • Encourage safe behavior in co-workers?
  • Attend safety meetings and training sessions?
  • Apply what they learn in training on the job?

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  • Participate in discussions about workplace safety?
  • Make suggestions for improving safety?
  • Ask questions about any hazards or procedures they don’t understand?
  • Practice safety at home, using PPE and other precautions they use at work when necessary?
  • Make an effort to keep healthy and fit?
  • Take advantage of wellness programs sponsored by your organization?

Tomorrow, we’ll suggest 6 simple but effective strategies that can help improve employee safety attitudes and create a safer workplace.

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