I’m sure someone out there can give a much more thorough answer, but personally it needs to be trickled down ALL the way from corporate, to managers, supervisors, and people on the floor. One break in the chain renders the culture ineffective. I’ve seen it from both sides, and that’s my take on it

I would say that I get the workers involved in the safety program and that creates ownership and empowerment. By having them participate in the safety committee, inspections, audits, reporting unsafe conditions, and amending operating procedures, they get involved and want to be part of the safety program and that improves the overall culture.

Andrew, I believe Safety Knights wrote 2 articles on safety culture, were you a subscriber when they were written? If not, maybe it can be reposted somewhere here

Hi Andrew!
What a loaded question LOL!
For starters it takes commitment from your entire team.
Work with your leaders to show the value of Safety in the workplace.
Talk about it at every opportunity. Show graphs and numbers. Some like visuals and others like a combination. Set your programs to be developed like dock safety and Fall protection, LOTO and of course BBS (behavioral safety ) combined with Near Miss and Safety committee Meetings/walk throughs..
Make lists. Never give up! Always continue your path and it will turn.
When I first started at this company they had never had a strong Safety leader. The Supervisors would turn and walk really fast to avoid me. LOL. Don't take it personally. Change is tough. It means learning and doing new. Some say we have been doing it this way for 30 years why should we change? I always say education and knowledge is continually evolving. When injuries decrease and worker comp costs decrease lost days fade, excitement begins and from there you are on your way to receiving ideas from the workers. The leaders take notice and begin to push for you. Everyone gets involved. It is a wonderful experience to see this happen and worth every minute of the work.
Enjoy your Holidays

To start, the leadership has to believe. Also, safety cannot be a separate concept. Safety compliance is one thing and the realm of a dedicated "Safety" person. Completing operations safely is everyone's concern. If the leadership does not buy in then no one else will be invested long term and you will only see short term gains.

My answer to this question is always from the top down. As a Safety Pro for a large staffing and employment agency, I work with dozens of companies each year to build their safety programs and grow their safety culture.

Getting the owner and C-level managers to buy into safety is key - this is best done by their understanding of ROI.... "If we spend $10,000 on safety this year by updating guards, installing light curtains, and investing in safety training, we'll save $50,000 in work comp and lost time. Next year can double that...etc."

Worker safety should be a no-brainer, but some owners/managers focus only on production. In this case, I focus on front-line Supervisors and workers and work bottom-up. They don't care about return on investment - they want to go home to their family and not the ER. To these types of employers and mom & pop employers, I show them very graphic images in the training showing real-world results of injuries and amputations from unsafe work practices. The next phase moves from watching out for your own safety to having your coworker's backs and team safety - now you've got the start of a healthy safety culture.

Talk about safety DAILY. If you have a production meeting, always end with a safety message. Thank your employees for working safely. Have a "shout-out" to safe workers during safety meetings. I often start BBS programs where small rewards are given in exchange for quality observations and ideas for safety improvement. I hope this helps.

One more little tidbit - Culture is built by the worst behavior which the leader is willing to tolerate. Simply put, that becomes the standard. So if you ever feel bad about enforcing a rule imagine what the standard could become by not enforcing it.

There is no such thing as safety culture. It is corporate culture. Calling it safety culture segregates it from the rest of the company's functions and creates excuses for not following safety requirements. It makes safety an add-on to the company functions when it should be integrated with regular operations. So you first take out the word safety culture and work to integrate safety compliance.