Christel | Passionate About SHEQ Management

Change Attitude & Corporate Culture to improve Health & Safety

• October 16th, 2007

Your attitude shapes your life

“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got”. Are you still doing what you have always done in terms of health & safety without achieving the correct results? It will not change unless you make it change. This means getting out of your comfort zone – stepping out of the box – and actively looking at how you can change your current H&S results for the better.

Change your attitude positively and you will change Health & Safety in the workplace! Your values, attitude and beliefs shape your safety behaviour and affect the organisations’ H&S performance.

There’s a saying that “There are only two things in life you can be sure of – death and taxes”!
In today’s world the third thing we can be sure of is CHANGE! The employee who sees change as a positive development holds the key to a successful H&S system.

CHANGE YOUR ATTITUDE AND CHANGE HEALTH & SAFETY FOR THE BETTER IN YOUR WORKING ENVIRONMENT!

Do you think we are implementing H&S just for the sake of doing it? You are wrong – it is for my & your sake that we emphasize H&S.

Values
A value is something of personal worth which you are not prepared to give up or compromise. It relates to the core or centre of your being. Do you want to loose your life in the working environment at the cost of your family’s future happiness and wealth?

Attitude
Your attitude is your personal opinion or general feeling about health & safety. It’s often influenced by previous experience, peer opinions and norms, or the culture of the group/s you belong to. Who are normally or most valued H&S supporter? It is the employee who has experience of incidents and their effect on the employee and the working environment.

Beliefs
A belief is an opinion that our mind firmly accepts as being true. Do you believe that by performing your task safely according to the procedure that you can actively contribute to the success of a H&S system? Do you believe that H&S is just window dressing in your organization?

The Impact of Values, Attitude and Beliefs

Values, attitude and beliefs are all closely connected to one another and affect H&S positively or negatively.

• They shape how you see the H&S system.
• They condition you to behave either safely or unsafely
• They influence your relationships with H&S employees

THE STEPS TO SUCCESS

Applying the Principles
Follow in the footsteps of other successful H&S organisations! Apply the principles for success in your organisation:

• Think positively about H&S at all times and not only during an audit or inspection.
• Know exactly what the objective of your organisations’ H&S system is.
• Practise self-discipline & apply the H&S rules.
• Be willing to go that extra mile and help “unsafe” employees by setting the example.
• Visualize what good H&S practices will bring you, eg. Healthy retirement.
• Take good care of your physical and mental health.
• Make sound H&S decisions based on good judgement and trustworthy information.
• Maintain a strong determination to ensure good H&S practices and not to be influenced by employees with the “wrong” attitude towards H&S.
• Communicate H&S concerns to others and include positives as well.
• Don’t repeat previous H&S mistakes – learn from them.

How do you define “success” in health & safety?
The Oxford dictionary describes success as:
• Outcome of undertaking or
• Favourable outcome or
• Accomplishment of what was aimed at or
• Attainment of wealth and position”.

Some people measure H&S “success” in terms of gradings while others look for success LTIFR or DIFR rates. A successful H&S system should have a balanced approach between management commitment, low incident rate, safety culture, low expenses incurred due to poor safety, non repeats of previous incidents and practicing H&S 365 days of the year and not only at certain intervals convenient to the organization.

RESPONSIBLE TEAM-WORK
A company’s final product is the result of the team effort of all its departments and employees.

It’s your product, your life and your company!

Building team spirit needs effort from both management and employees. Both parties must be committed and participate – all the time in the H&S system.

DEALING WITH NEGATIVE “ATTITUDES” AND BEHAVIOUR PATTERNS

Every group has one - the negative person who complains, is aggressive, is withdrawn, is a fault-finder, does nothing to improve things and is generally bad for everyone’s morale.

Aggressive behaviour Group A
People who act in this way are over-assertive. They don’t give anyone else an opportunity to give opinions. They want everything their own way.
You need to intervene to prevent them dominating the team.

Competitive and self-centred behaviour Group B
These people always put themselves first. They are often difficult to work with. It often shows that the person wastes time. This behaviour also needs firm management. It is very much like the “negative” behaviour described in Group C. Follow the same tips.

Negative behaviour Group C
People in this category don’t believe that anything good will happen in their lives. These people often see themselves as victims of circumstance. Work at getting them to look at themselves objectively. Encourage them to analyse whether things are really as bad as they believe and to work on changing the circumstances to a positive scenario.

Passive behaviour Group D
This group have low self-esteem. They want to stay out of the spotlight and tend to avoid voicing their opinion or making decisions. They do nothing rather than make a wrong decision.
• The best thing to do is to mentor them and encourage them to get off of the fence and put their abilities into action. Give them recognition for achievements and try to initiate progress in small and incremental steps.

Withdrawn behaviour Group E

This person is quiet and introverted. They avoid mixing with other people and are often uncomfortable in groups. They often have low self-esteem.
• Find ways to encourage them to participate in the group. Take small steps – starting with non-threatening requests.

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