SAFETY ATTITUDES

The presence of good management

safety culture does reflect good
behaviour of the workforce.
One criteria to have good safety
cultures in the workplace is to have
employees with particular patterns of
attitudes toward safety practice.

 Safe

behaviour of the workforce

needs to be actively managed
because the standard of safety within
any organization is not only
dependent on the presence of good
systems and engineering control but
also on the attitudes of people
operating the business.

What is attitude??
Attitudes include the way the person
thinks, feels, responds and reacts in
relation to certain situations or
events.

 Many

accidents at workplace are due

to inadequate adherence of workers
to work procedures e.g. purposely
taking a short cut when carrying out
dangerous and hazardous tasks
becomes a norm to some workers.

The Attitude of Worker

In

a company, workers carry out

work as instructed. They are the
`experts in their job area.
Why???

 Because

they know all the problems

and risks associated with the jobs
they deal with. Based on experience
gained, they know what common
problems arise as well as what is
required for safety for such job.

 Do

they have problems???

The problem is they cannot improve
matters because they do not have an
overall solution.
The workers tend to feel undervalued
because no one asks them their
opinion and any contributions made
are not valued by employers. In such
a situation workers only hear lip
service from top management.

 Employees

could be more productive

if management listened to them and
made them feel respected.
Dont bring me a problem, bring me
a solution prevents workers from
approaching management.
What should the management do???

 Thus

management has to set up

ways of improving the workers
attitude. The most important
approach is to get workers on the
line to have active participation in
finding better ways of doing the jobs.

Common Methods of Changing

Attitudes
1) Motivation
Many aspects can be considered to
enhance employee motivation
towards behaving safely; close
relationship with boss, in terms of a
wage, benefits, ensuring adequate
job security and work rules to
warrant them best efforts.

2) Information and Communication

- Ensuring adequate information and
communication in place may shape the
attitudes of people to safety.
- Important to spread information; e.g.
objectives to set by the company to the
workforce to make them easily understood
and able to be monitored periodically.
- Needs a 2-way communication since it
allows initiative and the acceptance of
constructive criticism which promotes
improvement throughout the organization.

Why

need a 2-way
communication???

 Without

a 2-way communication,
there is a tendency to hide important
information related to working
safety.

When

it may happen???

 This

may happen when the

management usually ignores their
comments or suggestions and leaves
them feeling undervalued.
If the situation is not improved,
there may be under-reporting of the
number of near-misses, unsafe acts,
etc.

3) Training
Why it is very important??
- During training all the information
about carrying out work safely is
conveyed. Clarification is given about
the objectives of the company
policies as well as the reasons to
adequately follow the rules and
procedures.
- Training also provides knowledge.

4) Behaviour Modification
- Induce people to adopt certain
behaviours; e.g. unwanted
behaviours can be replaced by
desired behaviours if better
approaches are used.
e.g. Du Pont Safety Training
Observation Program (STOP)