Health and safety policies and safety records are very closely tied to corporate culture. It doesn't matter how much legislation or how many company policies are in place requiring safe work practices and procedures. It is the corporate culture - a wide range of unwritten values and traditions - that determines whether those safe work practices and procedures are followed.
Corporate culture is reflected in many different factors. For example:
Who makes what decisions in the company?
- What are the most important company priorities? (Profit? Safety? Reputation? Quality?)
- Who is in charge?
- Who really gets things done?
- How much support is there for what employees say they need?
- How are problems handled?
- How are conflicts resolved?
- Who shares responsibility, and for what?
- What does the average employee care about on the job?
All of these things can affect a company's health and safety program, and it's important to understand just how they affect your responsibilities as a supervisor. For example:
- Will your boss support your decision to shut down an operation because whether or an equipment problem creates a safety hazard, or are you expected to keep things running and somehow make sure that nothing goes wrong?
- If the PPE available for your employees doesn't meet the latest safety standards, will your company buy new equipment now?
- If one of the people on your crew refuses to work because of substandard conditions, what is your boss going to say to you?
- Do you have the support you need in order to carry out proper health and safety programs?
But it's not just a matter of whether management will stand behind you. Corporate culture also has to do with how people feel about their jobs and how they interact with each other, and those things also cause a change to safety. For example:
- Do your crew members feel a sense of responsibility for each other's safety?
- Do people share responsibility when something goes wrong, or do they look for someone to blame?
- Do people support each other for being cautious about safety, or do they ridicule each other for not taking chances?
You will have to take these kinds of things into account if you are going to meet your health and safety responsibilities. The best health and safety program in the world simply will not work if it is not tailored for the worksite it is supposed to protect. It has to be adjusted not only for the kind of work being done - new home construction or pipeline work - but also for the underlying culture that makes the company what it is.