Washington — A safety culture that resonates deeply with workers revolves around four key elements and strategies, the National Safety Council says.
A new white paper, The Heart of Workplace Safety: Fostering Emotional Engagement for Lasting Impact, draws from an exploratory study conducted by NSC’s Campbell Institute. Researchers interviewed subject matter experts from eight organizations to explore the feasibility and impact of building safety culture through emotional engagement. The participants were selected based on their “rich experience” promoting and developing a strong safety culture within their organizations.
“In today’s workplace, cultivating a safety culture that resonates both emotionally and intellectually with employees is essential for fostering a resilient and proactive environment,” the white paper states.
To build a culture that “transforms safety from a compliance-based requirement into a shared, intrinsic organizational value,” the researchers encourage employers to implement these four elements and strategies:
- Promote psychological safety and open dialogue: Psychological safety enables workers to report hazards, share concerns and provide feedback without the fear of blame or reprisal. The SMEs said adjusting reporting systems, regular debriefings and leadership’s open-door policies helped promote psychological safety.
- Use leadership as a catalyst for internalized safety values: Leaders play a key role in shaping workers’ perspective that safety goes beyond compliance and is a deeply held organizational value. “Our executives make it a point to visit jobsites and have one-on-one conversations with workers about safety,” one of the SMEs said.
- Connect safety to real-life experiences with storytelling: Telling stories is among the most effective strategies for making safety personal and relatable, the paper states. Use stories during safety briefings, training sessions and safety moments to emphasize the importance of safety practices. Real-life experiences ensure employees connect emotionally with a story and understand actionable steps to prevent similar incidents.
- Measure effectiveness beyond traditional metrics: “Don’t just measure safety metrics – create action to show the value of gathering this data,” one of the SMEs said. Traditional lagging metrics, such as incident rates and lost time from workplace injuries, have limitations. Use qualitative measures that assess employee engagement and perceptions of safety. These measures can include tracking participation on safety committees, measuring the frequency of stop-work actions and evaluating employee-led safety discussions.
These four themes “reveal a pathway for creating a truly sustainable safety culture,” the white paper states.
