The goal of the Safety Culture improvement program is to create a new production philosophy and establish a systematic approach to the Safety System based on different methods of working with people. What does this systematic approach entail? It involves teaching every employee to contribute to safety, both personal and collective. When we ask, "Who is responsible for your safety?" the common answer is "That's the HSE department's job," but that is not the case. Working with people means enhancing safety culture through an internal awareness of the need for safety, and for managers, it means developing their own safety leadership.
Very often, people say, "If you pay me more, I will work more safely." But why do you stay safe at home for free and decide for yourself how to do things safely? The traditional approach is that safety is usually accompanied by control tools like fines and so on. Does this build awareness? In the sense that a person begins to realize that if they weren't caught or did something wrong and no one noticed, then everything is fine. However, they likely won't have that internal feeling that they need it for themselves.
Safety culture training is aimed at awakening self-awareness in employees. Change is always difficult, as any change can cause aggression, which can be normal, but the main thing is that it shouldn't lead to rejection. Being able to unlearn when necessary and learn new things is very important. We are not saying that what employees already know is bad. We are suggesting they look at something new and find something useful for themselves.
During the training, images of potential risks are examined, and in the process, perception changes by asking the question: "What could go wrong here?" The point is that by asking this simple question, we shift the focus, and suddenly, instead of a violation, hazardous factors appear. The safety culture training approach is built around this question. We start with people. This is what we are shifting our focus to.
It is also necessary to analyze the concepts of "position" and "role." Is there a difference between a role and a position? Why do we need occupational health and industrial safety? From a safety perspective, a manager's position can vary. The desired outcome is a just investigation, encouragement, and mentoring support, immediate problem-solving, and generally, the manager acting as a safety role model. Why is this? A production manager's position often focuses on "quotas at any cost," with safety running alongside in parallel. It is necessary to link these two aspects and make safety management more effective.
In our case, we begin changing through risk management. Why risks? Anyone can see a risk. Anyone can be taught this, and no special education is required.
The next area is behavior. Why behavior, and what does it have to do with safety? Building commitment is good, but not enough. We need to ensure that behavior changes as well. There are three areas of influence that can explain why we don't always follow the rules: informal rules, the "habitat" norm, and the teacher's behavior. To shape people's behavior, one must start with themselves, leading by example and teaching.
The next area is the change matrix. There are three steps to take to understand how to change ourselves and how to change others. Each of us has stereotypes, myths, and beliefs. Based on what we believe, we interpret events differently. We all have our own opinions, and that is normal. To change approaches and behavior, we need to look at what we believe — what each of us, and the person we are discussing safety with, believes. A person's beliefs influence their behavior. They can hinder change and can shape the wrong culture.
The "human factor" is a mythical thing, but in reality, it is an error.
When we talk about "the eye becoming blurred" (complacency) — it's something like the human factor, but it's actually risk perception. An experienced employee's brain sees and knows so much that it begins to ignore certain pieces of information.
It is important to consciously tune your perception. The brain is an extremely lazy organ capable of focusing on a single element while cutting out everything else. To perceive hazards and manage them at the level of perception, you need to "reset the filter," but this requires effort.