INSIGHT REPORT

Establishing a
Risk-Oriented
Culture
 Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................... 1

Benefits of a Risk-Aware Culture................................................................................... 2

Common Impediments................................................................................................... 2

Practical Steps and Solutions........................................................................................ 3

Role of the Safety Manager............................................................................................ 6

References..................................................................................................................... 6

About the Author............................................................................................................ 7

About Intelex.................................................................................................................. 7

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Introduction
Risk exists in countless forms in every workplace. From faulty machinery that can take
the life of an employee in a split second to a contaminating germ that can reduce a “The single biggest factor
seemingly benevolent medicine to a fatal poison, risk is everywhere. As with the number that marks the difference
and variety of risks, there are a seemingly equal number of ways organizations deal or between organizations
don’t deal with their own unique set of risks. There are also a vast number of factors that
that repeatedly
companies must manage to combat the ever-present risk threat.
experience health and
However, the single biggest factor that marks the difference between organizations that
safety or quality-related
repeatedly experience health and safety or quality-related incidents and those for which
such occurrences are a rarity, is culture. A workplace culture defined by fear, suspicion
incidents and those for
and second-guessing will invariably produce workplace accidents or quality which such occurrences
catastrophes. Conversely, cultures that are based on inclusion, cooperation and are a rarity, is culture”
commitment to process excellence are likely to produce lower incident rates and more
profitable operations.

This Insight Report will examine the benefits of a strong risk-oriented culture and will
describe the common impediments to creating one. It will look at the roles different levels
of an organization can play, from leadership to the employee on the ground. It will also
present practical advice and suggested actions for organizations looking to create a more
risk-aware culture and reap its many accompanying rewards.

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Benefits of a Risk-Aware Culture
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Organization (OSHA), a
strong risk-conscious culture brings countless benefits to an
organization, including:

• Improvements in product, process and service quality

• Better workplace morale

• Improved recruitment and retention

• A more favorable image and reputation among

customers, suppliers and the community

• Reduced costs on indirect expenses stemming from

workplace incidents, such as time lost to work stoppages,
costs around retraining injured workers and loss or damage to
material, machinery or property.1

Common Impediments
If establishing a strong culture of risk-awareness brings so many benefits, why doesn’t
every company establish one? The National Safety Council identifies four common
barriers that often prevent its development within organizations:

• General attitude. A lack of trust between employees and in the employee-manager

dynamic tends to create a climate of fear. When rules, direction and corporate
philosophy shift too often, an apprehension of constant change will serve to create a
pervasive negative attitude. Other contributing factors to this type of overall mindset
are a history of not involving employees in decision-making and workers who
concentrate on their colleagues’ imperfections.

• Roles and responsibilities. When there is uncertainty among workers about what
they are responsible for and what they need to do in their assigned roles, disorder and
frustration often result. Supervisors and management must ensure these are
established, communicated clearly and upheld. A lack of demonstrated commitment
from above, shunning key stakeholders from the decision-making process and failure
to involve unions can all result in a toxic culture.

• Training. When making changes to health and safety or quality assurance practices,
employers must ensure they train a core group of experts and allow enough time for
the workforce to absorb the new ways of working. Inadequate training, expecting
everything to change overnight and assigning too much responsibility to individuals
can all hamper training efforts and deflate efforts aimed at creating cultural change.

• Structure. Companies must find just the right amount of structure for a plan to succeed
and a more risk-aware culture to grow. Regular communication of overall objectives and
the day-to-day tactics required to meet them are key. A dearth of structure will result in
employees making wrong assumptions and ultimately not doing what is required to
reduce risk levels, while too much structure can stifle enthusiasm and create
resentment. Management must be clear, and must give initiatives time to show results.2

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A 2015 study of 66 steel workers at a large manufacturing plant in Sweden regarding
safety practices in their workplaces revealed attitudes and beliefs that typically define a
sub-par risk culture. Overall, the researchers found, workers perceived the responsibility
for ensuring their safety ultimately rested with the individual—not the company as a
whole. They added, however, that their efforts to maintain safety levels within this context
were constantly met with obstacles that included their very work environment and an
implied responsibility from management to maintain high levels of productivity. Shortcuts
were often taken in efforts to get work done on time. “The right equipment or tools might
not be available, or might have broken down, for example, lift trucks. Therefore,
inappropriate equipment and tools are used instead.”3

A general mistrust of others’ ability to ensure one’s own individual safety was evident.
Remarked one interviewee, “It does not matter how good you are yourself to think of
everything; there will always be fools around you.”

Disdain for management’s perceived lackadaisical approach to safety was clear.

“Sometimes there is nonchalance about what we say and what we think is dangerous,” said
one worker, while another observed that company leaders “spend more time on finding
‘scapegoats’ than on fixing problems.” Additionally, when agreement on a safety
improvement initiative has been reached, it can “take ages” for the company to implement it.

Practical Steps and Solutions

Given these all-too-frequently occurring roadblocks to a strong risk-aware culture, what
practical steps can an organization take to get past them?

Thanks to the development of stronger state-driven requirements for minimum safety and
quality standards over the past half century, organizations in most countries are responsible
for ensuring a certain base level of safe working conditions and output standards.

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For Robert Hafey, a long-time safety practitioner and consultant,
meeting regulations set out by an organization like OSHA will bring
short-term gains to a company that needs to improve its safety efforts, “but it
will not have a long-term cultural impact. The only people who can do that are the
managers that run the business. They need to get out of their offices. They need to
go out and engage employees.”

Hafey is a proponent of Lean safety methods, and has authored two books on the
subject (Lean Safety Gemba Walks: A Methodology for Workforce Engagement and
Culture Change and Lean Safety: Transforming your Safety Culture with Lean
Management). In short, Lean safety is a systematic approach to identifying and
controlling the waste in processes and activities which can cause accidents or illnesses.

“Lean safety is a
Hafey asserts that a commitment to continuous improvement, rather than simply doing
what needs to be done to achieve regulatory compliance, is the cornerstone of an
effective risk-oriented culture within organizations. And continuous improvement can only
systematic approach
come about when leaders genuinely care about the well-being of their employees.
to identifying and
“There needs to be some safety standard work for managers, where they will go out and controlling the waste
do safety gemba walks. It’s about employee engagement, doing that once a week or so.
in processes and
They’re out there to engage people in conversations about making work safer and easier.”
activities which can
Performing such walks allows managers to witness potential sources of worker injury.
cause accidents or
They can see, for instance, examples of repetitive work being carried out, where
employees may be bending over constantly or performing other movements that put
illnesses.”
stresses and strains on the body.

The next step is to have an open discussion with workers about what changes could be
made to make the work easier and prevent this type of soft-tissue injury, Hafey says.

“It’s a different type of leadership. It’s not being the leader, it’s being a coach. It’s being
there to help.”

The result of such an approach is another cornerstone of a healthy, risk-aware culture: trust.

“Management’s job is to earn the trust of their employees. [Workers] don’t give it. You
have to earn it,” Hafey adds.

Other tactics to build that kind of trust, and therefore a strong culture, that Hafey
recommends include developing an employee-based safety committee or starting a
safety improvement program that the workers themselves lead. These types of initiatives
allow them to experience the invigorating feelings of engagement and contribution, rather
than simply carrying out orders from on high.

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“The definition of engagement for me is someone who feels like they’re making a
difference,” says Hafey.

Michael Stanleigh, CEO of Business Improvement Architects, agrees that when it

comes to changing a workplace culture in regards to risk, staff involvement is key. “The
most important thing (for a company to do) is not just talk about it, but actually start
doing something.”

An easy way to get started, he suggests, is to take a select group of employees who may,
for instance, be working on a quality initiative, or on a project aimed at improving
workplace safety, and immerse them in a robust risk management process.

“They will very quickly realize the benefits, and they will then start to share that
information with others within the company.” Workers will feel more in control of their
circumstances and not as stressed out about the possibility of negative outcomes.

“And that will start to spread through the organization.”

Other practical steps to take to establish an improved risk-aware culture, according

to Dr. Thomas R. Chidester, Federal Aviation Administration, Civil Aerospace Medical
Institute, include:

• Assess the current state of your organization’s safety culture using a benchmarked
survey. Follow up on this with focus groups, case analysis, field observations and
examinations of historical incidents within the organization that fell below the
benchmarked standards.

• Acknowledge areas that need improvement.

• Establish feedback systems, including adverse event and safety concern reporting.

• Create and disseminate best practices guides, or “safety toolkits.”

• Align reward systems with safety performance outcomes.

• Assess and report safety progress to the workforce alongside economic progress.4

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Role of the Safety Manager
To ensure a strong, risk-aware culture is planted and allowed to grow within an
organization, Hafey asserts that management must also give safety managers a platform
to build trust between themselves and the workers they manage on the shop or
warehouse floor. A strong culture will not take root in an environment with a strictly
compliance-focused approach to health and safety.

“Safety managers often feel like they’re on an island,” says Hafey. “They don’t want to go
out and police their people and write up people and do safety observations. They don’t
want to destroy the relationships they have with the people who work for them.”

Such an approach doesn’t build trust and doesn’t change the culture. “That just drives
fear into the workplace.”

Rather, the correct approach involves initiating activities and programs that drive
worker inclusion and empowerment.

“It has to be on a person-to-person level, an ‘I-care-about-you’ level that

builds trust.”

Stanleigh assets that the workers who stand to benefit from a

strong risk-oriented culture should look to play a key role in
sparking cultural change. In other words, it isn’t just up to
management.

“Great initiatives usually are much more grassroots-driven and

happen among employees who say, ‘We’ve got to have better control
over our quality process or over our safety systems, and it’s really up to us
to analyze and manage risks.’”

Senior management, in Stanleigh’s experience, is often highly receptive to such

ideas. “Leaders will say, ‘Oh, absolutely, we agree. But what do you want us to do about
it?’ They don’t understand how to fix the problem. They just have to be exposed to the
problem or the idea that’s coming from that grassroots element.”

The end result is the precious empowerment ingredient so crucial to a positive risk-
oriented culture. “The grassroots can say, ‘Look what we did! This has reduced the
likelihood that will be managing by crisis and fighting fires.’”

References
1. OSHA, Recommended Practices for Safety and Health Programs, October 2016

2. National Safety Council, 4 Barriers to an Effective Company Safety Culture, 2013

3. Hasse Nordlöf, Birgitta Wiitavaara, Ulrika Winblad, Katarina Wijk, Ragnar Westerling,
Safety culture and reasons for risk-taking at a large steel-manufacturing company:
Investigating the worker perspective, published in Safety Science, March 2015

4. Thomas R. Chidester, “Creating a culture of safety” Quality and Safety in Anesthesia

and Perioperative Care, 2016

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About the Author
GREG ENRIGHT
Greg Enright is a veteran writer, reporter and editor who has written extensively on Information
Technology, Health and Safety and Business/Finance. He can be reached at gregenright91@yahoo.com.

About Intelex
Intelex Technologies, ULC is a global leader in environmental, health, safety and quality (EHSQ)
management software. Since 1992 its scalable, web-based platform and applications have helped clients
across all industries improve business performance, mitigate organization-wide risk, and ensure
sustained compliance with internationally accepted standards (e.g., ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001
and OHSAS 18001) and regulatory requirements. Virgin Atlantic, Brinks, Air Liquide, Lafarge, Volvo and
over 1,300 customers in 150 countries trust Intelex to power their EHSQ initiatives. Intelex is one of North
America’s fastest-growing technology companies, recognized as a Great Place to Work for over 7 years,
recipient of Waterstone’s Most Admired Corporate Cultures award, and Deloitte’s Best Managed
Companies award. For more information, please visit www.intelex.com.

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