How To Build A Strong Safety Culture Within Your Company

The HAZWOPER program is more than just training on how to handle and clean up hazardous materials. It is an important component of a comprehensive safety culture that can improve the way your organization functions.

What Is Safety Culture And Why Do You Need It?

A safety culture is a company-wide set of rules and regulations that govern subjects such as how activities are carried out and how accidents are handled. However it is more than just a set of rules in the employee handbook. It is a system of attitudes that will change the way workers and managers view and respond to situations.

Companies that implement a safety culture that extend beyond simple compliance with HAZWOPER training experience fewer accidents. The work environment has fewer dangers. Employees not only feel safer but feel empowered by their role as part of the team.

If those explanations are too touchy-feely for you, there are more practical reasons. Worker accidents are expensive. The clean up costs, work time lost to injuries, increased insurance rates not to mention the risk of lawsuits can easily add up to millions of dollars. Employees who feel unsafe have lower morale, and low morale means low productivity.

How Do You Start A Safety Culture?

Many organizations approach this from the wrong direction. They send workers to HAZWOPER courses, post some signs, and try to build the culture from the ground up. Lasting changes to a company have to come from the top. The first people who have to be brought on board are the top executives. They can implement policies and attitudes and that will flow down into the rest of the company.

Once managers have become part of the plan, add workers to the team. Teamwork does not mean managers telling employees to do something. When it comes to safety, there is an equal partnership between management and labor. Workers must be involved in safety planning since they are the ones most affected by these changes.

Training is a critical piece of a safety culture. HAZWOPER and similar programs should be extended beyond the mandated workers. Associated employees and managers benefit from the training as well since they learn how to respond in an emergency.

Keeping The Culture Going

Too many companies start off with the best of intentions but once the initial enthusiasm wears off, the safety program languishes. A well-designed program includes benchmarks and an audit mechanism to ensure that the program continues to do what it was intended to do. A safety committee of managers and workers should oversee the program and be prepared to modify it as conditions change.

Changing the culture of a company is a slow process. It is going to take more than a HAZWOPER class and a few memos. Be patient and diligent and soon people will find that they are implementing safety in everything they do. It becomes natural and instinctive and your organization will be better for it.

Did You Know?

The regulations state that site-specific hands on training must be done to be in compliance with the OSHA regulations. Yet when an employers sends an employee to a 40 Hour HAZWOPER Classroom this employer believes that have met the OSHA regulations. This is not true. The employer has the responsibility to provide site-specific hands-on training for the actual equipment the employee will be using in their job.

Put your employees in the best possible position for a good and safe outcome! We believe the combination of online training and site-specific hands on training places your employees in the best possible position to avoid injury and helps protect your company from any future problems.

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