How to Boost Safety Culture Through Technology
A safety culture supported by technology can enhance workplace safety, employee engagement and overall organizational well-being.
- By Gen Handley
- Nov 06, 2024
Good things take time. This well-known idiom can be applied to virtually every aspect of a company’s development, including its safety culture and how safely people perform their jobs.
The definition of “safety culture” may slightly vary from company to company or industry to industry. However, no matter what the definition, they are always deeply ingrained within the company. Safety culture, according to NIOSH, is “a broad term encompassing overall organizational culture, values and actions.”
The goal of a strong safety culture is to ultimately improve the safety and well-being of the people working in that environment. Research has found that not only does safety culture improve the employees’ safety, but it also has several additional proven benefits such as home healthcare where they determined that the establishment of a strong safety culture significantly improves “patient outcomes, staff performance and organizational effectiveness.”
Researchers have found that safety culture directly improves safety performance because it reduces the total injury rate in the workplace. While a healthy company safety culture takes time to build, it can be accomplished with strong leadership, strong staff engagement, and current tools and technologies to help address their safety needs and challenges.
Communication and Engagement
A common challenge is regular communication and connection with coworkers about safety. This can result in a number of major organizational issues, from errors and mistakes in the products or services to high employee turnover due to a lack of safety prioritization. Employee engagement and participation are critical for a safety culture to evolve.
The employer must not only provide the devices and technology to allow this communication and growth, but they need to provide the opportunities and time for workers to connect about specific work-related matters. These can include company smartphones, satellite communicator devices, and regular online meetings or brainstorming sessions to keep the workers engaged about important safety issues, occupational hazards, and current safety protocols to follow should an emergency occur.
Team Morale and Mental Health
The strength of a safety culture can depend on the strength of its team’s morale. Providing channels for employees to communicate with each other can improve this confidence, both as a team and individually; even simple conversations among each other can benefit their well-being.
Look at providing technologies such as instant messaging and video messaging apps, cellular coverage and plans to help employees communicate with each other. Additionally, consider providing compensation for wellness apps that would benefit their emotional health as well. Determine how they communicate best in order to provide the most suitable technology for the team, resulting in tighter relationships and better communication.
Real-Time Monitoring and Data Collection
Along with communication, a major component of healthy safety culture is a proactive approach towards injury prevention. Safety devices and technology can collect huge amounts of information that can be used to prevent worker injuries in the future. These include hands-free devices such as smart protective glasses, robotic exoskeletons and lone worker monitoring technology which the National Safety Council says can improve overall safety culture.
In a recently announced partnership between OSHA and NIOSH, the CDC says future research could be performed on how the large volumes of data from lone worker technologies is used for the benefit of the employees; this is in addition to further recommended research on the effectiveness of lone worker technologies in remote and rural locations, the cost of purchasing and maintaining these technologies, as well as worker buy-in and regular usage of these technologies.
The comprehensive data collected on employee behaviors (with their consent), environmental conditions, and equipment performance can identify patterns and predict hazards, allowing the employer to implement timely safety measures before someone is hurt. This focus on preparation and safety will set a high standard for the rest of the team and organization.
AI and Predictive Analytics
To aid in examining these large amounts of data, AI can be used to identify potential safety risks more quickly and more successfully than a person.
Helping safety programs and EHS management, AI tools can improve the ability to predict and prevent future safety hazards using the gathered safety data on its workers. Studies found that using AI with motion sensors and wearables has multiple benefits ensuring “that workplaces adhere to safety standards, minimize legal risks and promote a culture of compliance.”
Safety Training and Education
A big part of safety culture is ongoing safety training for staff. Researchers have found an essential element of an effective safety culture is “substantial commitment to employee training.” Using communications technology,safety training can be accessed almost anywhere, allowing employees in remote locations to benefit.
In-person safety training sessions engage workers, bringing them together over a central OHS lesson or objective. Virtual and online safety training allows workers to recreate scenarios and access resources that were impossible before advances in technology.
Quality of Work
Ultimately, safer, more connected and more engaged employees will perform better quality work. A workplace where safety is a priority is where skilled employees are a priority and where they will stay longer because they feel valued and comfortable. One of the key characteristics of a strong safety culture is that it is an environment where workers are not afraid to speak up about their safety concerns in the workplace. They feel safe to do so without fear of repercussions or ridicule from the employer or their fellow employees.
Safety culture does not take overnight to build and is an ongoing process where everyone within the organization must consistently work on to maintain. But in the end, the result is a happier and safer team of people staying at the company. And that’s more than worth it.