Health and safety culture is simply the attitude about safety that pervades throughout the whole organisation, from top to bottom, and is the norm of behaviour for every member of staff, from directors down to the newest junior. It can be identified, measured, improved and, if neglected, allowed to deteriorate. It is of paramount importance in the prevention of accidents in any organisation.
‘Organisations with a positive safety culture are characterised by communications founded on mutual trust, by shared perceptions of the importance of safety, and by confidence in the efficacy of preventive measures.’
HSE’s Advisory Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (ACSNI: HSC, 1993)
Workplace Law has developed a safety culture toolkit, which will analyse the following areas:
Procedure and compliance culture
Are safety controls and procedures perceived as being valid and justified?
How effectively have any new procedures been incorporated into your safety management system?
Awareness and attitude
How much do individuals take ownership for health and safety in the workplace?
How often are employees asked for their input into safety issues?
Communication about safety
How well are your safety messages received and understood by the workforce?
How open are your employees about safety?
Is there effective two-way communication about safety?
Management issues
What is the belief, amongst the workforce, regarding management commitment to health and safety?
What is the balance between safety, quality and productivity?
Resources and morale
What strategies are used to encourage safe behaviour? Is this applied over numerous sites?
Is the workforce pressured to work long hours or take safety shortcuts to improve productivity?
Following the completion of the survey, Workplace Law will:
produce a comprehensive report of our findings;
identify any key patterns and trends at site and organisation level; and
- prepare and deliver a presentation at board level, showing the outcome of our findings.
Workplace Law provides a high quality, personal service at very competitive rates. We place great emphasis on the training and approach of our consultants, which gives you the reassurance of a thorough, competent and reliable service:
In 2012 Workplace Law was asked to develop and deliver a property management-focused sustainability training course for BNP Paribas Real Estate UK. This is a branch of BNP Paribas bank, which provides a number of property services including development, management and investment of property portfolios across the UK.
Workplace Law was appointed in the final quarter of 2012 to assist Shelter with the implementation of an ISO 14001 Environmental Management System (EMS). Shelter wished to reduce its environmental impact, secure funding and make operational cost savings.
"In 2009 Chaps Ltd recognised that it needed to improve its health and safety systems. We changed our Health and Safety consultants to Workplace Law in order to give us a fresh approach towards our management of health and safety and to gain specialist construction advice.
"By using their expertise and experience Simon and Maria have guided us into developing a health and safety system that has achieved CHAS accreditation and given our customers and principle contractor’s confidence in our management of health and safety. They have always been available to offer advice when needed and to provide independent site inspections and audits which are often required by our customers.
"Both Simon and Maria continue to support Chaps Ltd and have become an important, integral part of our Health and Safety Management System."
Suzanne Jackson, HR Director, Emprise:
“Workplace Law has made a difference to the quality of the service we can provide to our staff. And because of the customised service from Workplace Law, the costs have come down.
“We’re now into the second year and we’re pleased with the level of service which is always turned around quickly with any queries being answered straight away.”