Occupational health and safety concerns in the workplace continue to gain more interest but practical solutions are often lacking. For some organizations, performance in safety is a key indicator that relates directly to supervisory performance, morale, job satisfaction, and of course, productivity. But what kinds of tools and solutions are available to help professionals intervene efficiently through practical forms of measurement — before injuries occur? One way is to request information and input from your employees through a survey. This type of strategy allows you to measure the "climate for safety" or employee perceptions regarding safety.
Organizational climate has been studied from as early as the 1940's. In fact, climate is a good overall reflection of an organization's culture. And climate has always been viewed as critical to the health of an organization. For example, how do employees feel about management's support with regard to equipment? Do they feel they have the appropriate tools and training to do their jobs effectively and safely? Do they believe their supervisors offer appropriate support?
Often, employees will act the way they feel. If they believe management doesn't really care about their health and well-being, productivity may suffer. Even more, it's been shown that injuries and illnesses are worsened when workers don't feel they're being adequately supported by their supervisors or management. This means that delays in returning to work may follow and on-the-job performance will suffer. By measuring key areas critical to climate, management can intervene in proactive ways to improve your overall health and safety efforts — your culture.
Measuring critical components of your health and safety efforts you can improve your own programs and processes and develop a strategy for continuous improvement. A few key dimensions that would be measured include: management support, coaching, supervisory support, training and tools and equipment. Results of your profile are gathered through questionnaires completed by the workforce, and summarized in various ways with recommendations.
When you begin to measure areas like those addressed above, you can start to move ahead with a well thought out plan of action. This form of measurement will help to: 1) Increase management visibility and gain support; 2) reduce costs through more focused efforts; 3) form baselines for ongoing improvements; 4) increase accountability for supervisors and managers; and 5) improve employee relations by allowing workers to be "part of the process."
Measuring your climate for safety makes good business sense and can help move your organization in the right direction. By measuring key indicators, "before injuries occur," you can make very good use of a proactive "up-stream" measure that can become integral to your long-term success!
