Negative Indicators of Health and Safety in an Organization.

One of the most important aspects of an organisation in maintaining a good health and safety management system is having a good safety culture within the organisation.

Negative indicators of health and safety in an organization are warning signs that will highlight the weaknesses as well as failures within the existing safety management system.

Some of those examples that we can see in an organisation which will point to a negative safety culture are high rate of workplace accidents, incidents and near misses, increased absenteeism, staff turnover and low morale are some of those.

Now let’s discuss in detail some of these negative safety culture points below.

1. Higher Accident / Incident Rates

A higher accident / incident rate is a very strong sign of poor negative safety culture within the organisation. This will show us that either existing safety practices are not suitable and sufficient for the organisation or employees are not following it. There could be many reason for this. It could be workers are not properly trained for it, workers are ignoring safety rules, lack of proper and efficient communication within the employer and the staff, complaints about working conditions, peer group pressure, wrong work practices etc.

2. Increased Absenteeism and Staff Turnover

This is another very good indicator which will point you towards negative safety culture. When employees are frequently staying away from the work or leaving the organisation it could point out to that they are feeling unsafe, stressed or even unhappy with the current working condition. It could also be due to some unsafe practices that are being followed within the organisation which is causing discomfort to the employees whilst at work. A good example of this is if the worker feels that the work that he is doing is unsafe and no action is taken from the management side despite being informed, he will pursue either not to come for work or look for another job. As we mentioned on the first point, if accident / incident rates are also very high and no actions are taken to control it, then employees may tend to leave and look for better opportunities.

3. Poor Reporting of Accidents

Poor reporting of accidents are another sign of negative safety culture within an organization. The reasons behind this could be several issues like workers fearing of getting blamed, punished or ignored upon reporting, lack of actions taken on earlier reported accidents, no proper reporting mechanisms etc. This could only lead to an increase in further incidents in the workplace.

4. Lack of employee engagement

This shows to the scenario where employees are not actively involved in day to day safety practices. One of the reason behind this could be where employees are showing very little interest in safety meetings, training or reporting of hazards. It could be when they feel that their ideas are being ignored or being given less importance or even they feel that management doesn’t care about safety management system. When employees are not involved or engaged, they are less likely to follow the laid down rules or even take responsibilities for keeping themselves as well as those who are working with them.

5. Lack of proper training to employees

Every employee needs to be trained on how to perform their jobs safely. When employees are not properly trained, they will have no idea of how to do their job safely. This could only lead to incident and injuries.

For example if a worker is not trained on how to handle hazardous chemicals, then they are at greater risk of harm. This will also make the employees feel insecure and will lose confidence in the employer.

6. Lack of visible leadership support

Lack of visible leadership can have serious impact on an organization’s overall safety culture and workplace safety. When the leaders who are responsible for health and safety fails to actively demonstrate their commitment to safety, employees may feel that safety is not a priority within the organization. This will only lead to a working environment where employees may tend to take shortcuts, ignore safety practices, and become careless about their safety as well as of those who are working with them. This can also lead to loss of trust between the employers and the employees, non-reporting of hazards or near misses etc. A very good example is where managers fail to use appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) while visiting the workplace can make employees assume that these practices are acceptable.

7. Inadequate Resources for Safety

When an organization is not allocating sufficient funds towards safety to keep the workplace safe, then it can seriously affect the safety culture of the organization. For example, insufficient fire extinguishers, first aid kits, personnel protective equipment’s etc. Similarly, if the organization is not investing in proper training, recruiting competent staffs can lead to unsafe acts. This will seriously affect the morale of the workforce, which in turn is a negative safety culture indicator. When safety resources are limited, employees may feel that their well-being is given low priority.

8. Low participation in Safety Programs

This mainly points to a situation where employees are not actively participating in various safety activities like training sessions, daily toolbox talks or safety meetings and also reporting of hazards and near misses. This usually happens when workers has lost confidence with the employer or when they think that these programs are not useful or effective anymore.

Conclusion

So from the above points, we can understand that negative safety indicators are clear warning signs to understand that the existing health and safety management system is not functioning effectively. Addressing these negative indicators is crucial in improving the health and safety within an organization.

Call to Action

If you have any thoughts on how organizations can improve their health and safety culture, please share them in the comments section!

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