Safety Culture Starts With Trust, Not Compliance
At VPPPA Safety+, Aron Yellott explored how trust, worker involvement and frontline leadership can strengthen safety.
- By Stasia DeMarco
- Sep 01, 2026
A strong safety culture depends on more than procedures, training and compliance. It requires workers to trust that when they identify a hazard, question how a job is being performed or stop work, someone will listen.
That was a central message from Aron Yellott during her session on the human factors behind safety culture at the VPPPA Safety+ Symposium in Nashville.
Yellott brought a deep personal perspective to the discussion. She described losing her husband following a workplace exposure 22 years ago, an experience that ultimately shaped her commitment to workplace safety. She told attendees that safety is personal because the consequences extend beyond the workplace to workers and their families.
Her session focused on how psychology, sociology, trust and workplace norms can influence whether formal safety systems work as intended.
Organizations routinely measure training completion, written procedures, inspections and compliance, Yellott said. But those measures don't necessarily reveal what happens when an employee is under pressure to meet production goals or encounters a condition that makes following a procedure difficult.
Trust becomes critical in those moments.
Yellott encouraged safety professionals to examine what actually happens when someone stops work or raises concern. If coworkers complain about falling behind or supervisors immediately focus on restarting production, employees may learn that speaking up carries a social or professional cost.
That same thinking can apply after an incident. Rather than stopping an investigation after determining that an employee failed to follow a procedure, Yellott urged attendees to ask why the worker's decision made sense at the time.
Production pressure, staffing shortages, equipment design or a guard that interferes with the work may help explain why workers develop workarounds. Examining those conditions can give employers more useful information about weaknesses in the system.
Frontline workers should also have a role in developing safety procedures, Yellott said. Employees who perform the work every day can identify hazards and operational realities that may not be apparent when procedures are developed away from the jobsite. Giving workers greater ownership can also strengthen their commitment to performing the work safely.
Yellott also highlighted the influence of informal leaders — experienced workers whose opinions may carry more weight with a crew than a written policy.
If a veteran employee teaches a new worker that a shortcut is simply “the way we actually, do it,” that workplace norm can undermine the formal procedure. Safety leaders, she said, should identify those influential employees and involve them in improving procedures and reinforcing safer practices.
Finally, Yellott stressed the importance of closing the communication loop. When employees report near misses or hazards, leaders should tell them what was done in response — even when the answer is no.
“Always close the loop,” Yellott told attendees.
That follow-through helps demonstrate that speaking up matters and can encourage workers to continue reporting concerns.
As Yellott put it near the conclusion of her session, “Your trust has to be visible.”
About the Author
Stasia DeMarco is the content editor of Occupational Health & Safety.