Safety Culture
Executive Summary
The 100-year-old organisation has been a major supplier of products of meat which are cured using their traditional Italian recipes. Upon hiring a team of professional consultants to advise them regarding Occupational health and safety certain gaps were identified which were of significant risk. The report serves a purpose for Plum Smallgoods to assist in the development of safety culture to reduce the risk of any occupational safety hazard. The report will first discuss the safety culture and how the organisation is legally obligated to the safety of each worker. The term is further studied from the previously studied and the effect of its implications in organisations. The behaviour of the workers regarding the safety culture is also studied, and recommendations are presented in the context of human resource management where performance management, rewards, training and development, recruitment, and job design are analysed and justified on assisting the organisation in the development of safety culture. The report focuses on how the combination of each human resource management function impacts the safety culture and what are the most essential factors to reduce the significant risks highlighted by the consultants. John Plum must take note of the five recommendations presented in the report in order to deter injuries on the factory floor and to eliminate critiques during future health reviews. This will lead to the alteration of existing behaviour, by encouraging staff to work inside Plum Small Goods' safety culture.
Introduction
Work-related accidents and illnesses are still an issue for many people, businesses, and economies around the globe. Strong work safety policies are important to the workforce because they support not only the employees but also the entire business in the final analysis. If there is a severe occupational accident, illness, or death, the families, employees, and the business will face an immense financial responsibility. Naturally, humans are strongly affected by those around them. We will probably adapt to our environment rather than to flow, even if it means ignoring the regulations of the company. Therefore it is essential for our workers to develop a strong safety culture. If most of our employees act in a safe manner and follow rules, the remaining employees will probably be in line. There is a legal responsibility of employers to create a safety culture where just implementation of those rules and regulations is not enough, to oversee the compliance of these policies which are not to be underestimated. WHO (2003) stated that in the year 1995, the International Labour Organisation and World Health Organization (WHO) issued a statement on the topic of occupational health that the occupational health is based on three foundations first of which is to maintain and promote the health of workers and their working capacity, secondly they stated that the working environment should promote the health and safety for all workers, and finally the creation of work and its culture is intended to represent the critical value systems embraced by the undertaking involved.
Legal Responsibilities of Employers
In Section 19, Division 2 of Work Health and Safety Act 2011 it is stated that the primary duty of an organization is to ensure that all practices in the organization ensure the health and safety of all the engaged workers. The Australian statutory agency Safe Work Australia which was established due to the Safe Work Australia Act 2008 is developed to ensure that occupational work and health safety are improved across the board. For Plum Smallgoods it is essential to improve the working conditions as per the suggestion of the auditors, not just to save the lives of the workers but for increased efficiency by enhancing productivity with the safety culture and reduce insurance claims.
Finding and Discussion
Safety Culture
The term ‘safety culture’ was first mentioned in the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 which was due to the organisation culture (N. Pidgeon, Turner, Toft, & Blockley, 1992) the term quickly gained a reputation and was further stated in many disasters. The term is used to describe the culture of an organisation in which safety is understood through all levels of organisations and is implemented on the same required level (Glendon & Stanton, 2000). Organizational culture is a term often used to characterize specific organizational beliefs that shape the attitudes and actions of participants and influence them. Safety culture is a sub-facet of corporate culture that is expected to influence the behaviours and actions of participants with respect to the ongoing health and safety success of the organization (M. COOPER, 2000). Unless safety is a dominant feature of corporate culture which would arguably be in high-risk industries, safety is a subcomponent of corporate culture which refers to personal, employment, and organizational features that affect, influence health and security (Clarke, 1999).
Many authors have attempted to describe safety culture wherein a study by N. F. Pidgeon (1991) the concept of a safety culture acts as a framework in order to reduce exposure to potentially hazardous environments for organizations involved in risk management and management for its staff. It offers disaster-related situational requirements and serves as a tool to monitor and develop risk management strategies. It can be determined whether an organization values a good security culture through different factors such as its standards, rules, and attitudes. It is important to grasp the idea that all organizations' standards and guidelines are central. Which serves as a guide for all the employees to be aware of the significant risk and its management. Turner, Pidgeon, Blockley, and Toft (1989) also defined the safety culture as “`the set of beliefs, norms, attitudes, roles, and social and technical practices that are concerned with minimising the exposure of employees, managers, customers, and members of the public to conditions considered dangerous or injurious”. In the study by Lee (1993) he defined the safety culture as “the product of individual and group values, attitudes, competencies, and patterns of behaviour that determine the commitment to, and the style and proficiency of, an organisation's health & safety programmes. Organisations with a positive safety culture are characterised by communications founded on mutual trust, by shared perceptions of the importance of safety, and confidence in the efficacy of preventative measures”.
Often the role of risk control and safety management is viewed as a continuum of network levels with lower (work) systems where the incidents occur, managed by a mixture of equipment and human actions (individuals or groups), which are then managed by inventory management, resources and knowledge management (Hale, 2003). The term safety climate is to assess the safety culture as perceived by the employees (Brown & Holmes, 1986; Zohar, 1980). The perception plays an essential role in improving the behaviours towards safety.
Safety Culture Improving Safety Behaviours of Employee
One approach to improve awareness of the safety culture is by using workplace perception surveys which are useful instruments to identify discrepancies in employee perceptions toward different management activities. This, however, does not measure safety culture but indicates safety criteria. Such methods were also used in the area of safety in order to assess the efficiency of the safety culture (O'Toole, 2002). In a survey by Bailey (1997), he stated that the perception of workers as regards the management 's dedication to safety, the involvement of fellow workers in protection, and the quality of management preparation and awareness activities have had a positive effect on safety outcomes. He indicates that the understanding of these causes by workers affects their chance of compliance with safety and health policies and regulations. A study by M. D. Cooper and Phillips (2004) which focused on the behavioural safety and safety climate concluded that there is an observational correlation between a small range of expectations of the safety environment and real security behaviour. This has also shown the complexity of the whole relationship: climate change does not automatically reflect improvements in behavioural protection standards. In comparison, changes in security activity, views of the security environment do not generally reflect them. The management’s attention to safety is explicitly illustrated by behaviour, the findings of this qualitative analysis indicate that the views of the workers on safety management have been favourably affected. With this change of perception, a strong causal relationship appears to have been established to reduce injury rates (Clarke, 1999; Smith, Cohen, Cohen, & Cleveland, 1978).
Smith et al. (1978) concluded that the commitment of management towards the safety process is the essential and significant factor to reduce injury in the workplace. Experienced administrators agree that shifts in expectations and behaviours are challenging. You may also consider the disposition or expectations of an employee's actions, for example, conformity with health guidelines or common workplace procedures. The key emphasis will be to enable workers to better understand what they need and to result in fewer injuries at work. A series of guidelines and behaviours towards conduct compatible with the entire company and with injury prevention and health as the primary focus of Plums Smallgoods. They have demonstrated poor attitude towards occupational health and safety which reflects that the management has failed to develop a safety culture within its employees. The following recommendations are presented to improve the safety culture.
Recommendation and Justification
The safety culture can be improved upon by performance management, rewards, training and development, recruitment, and job design.
Performance Management
Managing the performance of the staff is one of the most critical aspects of human resources management. Managers are encouraged to monitor the performance of the workforce in order to assess goals, calculate and analyse outcomes, and reward success (Den Hartog, Boselie, & Paauwe, 2004). Through maintaining the performance of the workers, the company's strategic priorities to improve the health of the enterprise are best achieved. Supervisors are responsible for monitoring employee performance to ensure that no employees fall behind and improve their performance for the benefit of the company. The effect is negative, because if there is a drop in efficiency, because success is necessary to meet the goals of the company, and the workers hold it off. Management of performance consists of three primary objectives: strategic, developmental, and administrative. The strategic approach is to define results and behaviour to help employees achieve these organizational objectives, because performance management is designed to coincide with the goals of the organization. There it is important to interact and ensure the workers meet the standards (De Cieri et al., 2003). Furthermore, the workers' suggestions will enable the supervisor to fix any issues related to such items as healthy work practices. The perception of the management of Plum Smallgoods is that they have higher safety values but it has not been communicated to the operational level where accidents can occur this fulfils the first objective of the performance management which is strategic. The developmental aspect of the performance management which enables the supervisors in identifying the reasons for the weakness of the employees towards certain tasks, it can be the possibility that employees are unable to understand the required work or the safe way of performing an activity which is why unsafe attitude is developed through this behaviour. Communication has been impactful in reducing the risks for an organisation (De Cieri et al., 2003). The feedback of the employees can be utilized to develop the administrative purpose of performance management where measures can be adopted in enhancing the safety culture.
The process of performance management is to set the objectives, strategies, and process, measure the strategies, rewards, and benefits, and feedback. Plum Smallgoods needs to ensure an effective performance management system is embedded in the key performance indicators which are valid and reliable. This commitment in overhauling the performance management will improve the safety culture and safety climate when all employees will be clear on the KPIs and what the organisation requires out of them.
Rewards
In a study by Tiffin and McCormick (1965), they defined that rewards can be either intrinsic or extrinsic where the intrinsic rewards origins are implicitly motivated by the incentives found in the task itself and which the worker loves as a consequence of the work or the accomplishment of his goals. The external recompenses include, for example, wages, living conditions, marginal benefits, welfare, advancement, service contracts, workplace climate, and working conditions. Rewards have been used to motivate and shape the behaviours of the workers (Foss, Pedersen, Reinholt Fosgaard, & Stea, 2015) but can have negative impacts as well. Plum Smallgoods have to use a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards to develop a safety culture. The suggested mix is discussed as follows which would assist in improving safety behaviour and develop a positive safety culture.
- Employee Recognition: The recognition by line managers towards performing the task is inexpensive and highly motivating as the employees will develop organization citizenship behaviour which result in behavioural shaping. The recognition with a mix of positive suggestions towards reaching the goals in a safe manner is the desired output of this reward.
- Autonomy: Employees are eager to control and take responsibility for their job and tasks (as well as to dissolve a micromanagement approach) will enable people to take ownership and pride in their work. The autonomy will enable a sense of responsibility in employees to create a safety culture as this will shape their behaviour in having the responsibility of themselves. Rather than management stepping in to create a safety culture.
- Opportunity for Advancement: Cash prize can be a negative motivator but employees who are responsible and trustworthy can have the opportunity to advance within the organisation will implement further responsibility to create a safety culture.
The mix of these rewards will motivate employees highly engaging in the task in a safer manner, as Maslow (1943) sheds some light on the motivation this mix is a combination of basic needs and psychological needs which enables them towards self-fulfilment needs.
Training and Development
Training and development in a company mean that workers have the requisite expertise to execute tasks and acquire the appropriate skills to ensure optimum job rates are successfully and efficiently achieved. When workers are trained to protect themselves, they don't need to continuously track staff, which is a concern as they are taught in a certain manner to operate and then obey the procedure they are used to. The development of employees has had an important impact on work quality and Output (Sung & Choi, 2018). The growth of the ability and abilities of an individual by delivering learning and education experiences (Aragón-Sánchez, Barba-Aragón, & Sanz-Valle, 2003). To create an impact and develop a safety culture in the organisation Plum Smallgoods must follow the training and development process.
- Identify Training Needs: The organisation has to dig deeper into microscopic topics of organisation health and safety, firstly the line manager/trainer has to identify the needs for training this can be created through the auditor report as well as the departmental head of each manufacturing process who understand the safety. This will allow the line managers to monitor and assess the training needs for the future as well.
- Establish Objectives: The line managers need to establish the objectives/desired outcomes of the training which should be to fill the gaps which were identified earlier. The objectives are to be clear and concise from which the training methods will be selected.
- Select Training Methods: Training methods can vary due to the achievement of the desired objectives, by selecting from the variety of methods, the effective method is chosen in line with the objective and resources of the organisation.
- Conduct and Deliver Training: The desired chosen methods are now delivered in an effective manner of keeping in mind the workload of the employees and the priority of the objectives.
- Evaluate Performance: To monitor and review is one of the most essential parts of the training and development process where it is constantly monitored and analysed the effects of the training, from which the process imitates again if there are gaps remaining.
By training employees on safety within the organisation they will be responsible enough to ensure that they do not put themselves and others in harm’s way. Although the organisation shouldn’t just stop at training the employees in safety, they should also develop their skills so that they are best suited to deal with any situation that may arise. By utilising this skill safety culture within the organisation will improve as everyone is aware of dangers and how to avoid such things to ensure that there is a constant flow within the organisation.
Recruitment
Recruitment is the quickest solution to attracting new workers for positions within the company. Recruiting should be used to improve the organization's safety culture when preparation is given in the recruitment process. Recruitment and selection is a key element in the management of several human resources functions and depends on the organisation's success (Compton, 2009). In order to ensure that companies are equipped with the right workers with respect to the skills and secure working conditions and abilities, HR practitioners at all management levels periodically evaluate the assessment of the recruiting, quality at competences. The key goal is to create a strategic match for the company to be sought by potential workers to create a safety culture in Plum Smallgoods. New workers should have instruction to ensure that they are continuously observing safety practices, enhancing the health of their staff as qualified and capable of being employed in situations where they are exposed to dangerous environments. In the case, a firing is introduced, hiring a new employee may also be successful if the employee is not able to follow the safeguarding protocols for the good of the company, but also for other workers who will fail. The promotion will also be successful if the staff is not willing to comply with the security procedures. It is important that during the interview process safety assessments be carried out by means of work health and safety issues. The successful safety appraisal would suggest that the prospective employee should be secure enough to follow the regulations and show faith that other workers will help lead them. The benefits of consistent evaluation of health and the correct screening of potential workers include occupational accident reduction, health management, strategic cost savings, and organizational effectiveness.
Job Design
Effective Job design resolves the issue of unproductive, demotivated employees, and employees who do not align with the objectives of the organisation (Kompier, 2003). Job design is a major HRM function. It refers to the actual structure of the work, i.e. the determination and distribution of tasks and activities between employees in a manner which enables the company to benefit of specialization and package tasks so that synergies between tasks can be considered (Foss, Minbaeva, Pedersen, & Reinholt, 2009). Since various work features will boost other forms of motivation, management can closely analyse how individual tasks are structured. The jobs are to be designed in a way that across the board knowledge should be shared and autonomy is created to trigger intrinsic motivation in the employees to create a safety culture in Plum Smallgoods. The organisation should implement the approach of Job Enrichment where the employees would feel more responsible and autonomous towards performing their tasks in a safe manner. One important factor is that the jobs should be designed to keep the line manager and the capacity in mind so that the workers might feel safe and motivated to perform the task in an effective safe manner.
Conclusion
It is essential that Plum Smallgoods move towards establishing a safety culture, due to the legal and ethical obligation, it is the duty of the employer to provide a safe workplace to all its workers. This can avert many future issues in the organisation. The organisations should focus on addressing the significant risk firstly which can be hazardous and harmful for the workers, by the recommended methods presented in this report. The constant survey is to be obtained which is the safety climate to assess where the organisation stands in the minds of the employees, this will help identify loopholes in the implications of the company. Attitude and approach should be developed from the top management which will communicate in the operational staff. The HRM practices can assist in developing a safety culture where the most significant factors are rewards and performance management followed by training and development. Though job design and recruitment are also essential but would still require the assistance of rewards, performance management, and training and development to enhance the safety culture in Plum Smallgoods. Extensive training and development should be followed by the rewards for the workers which is based on performance management, this whole cycle will assist in Plum Smallgoods develop a culture simultaneously recruitment will be based on specific clear job designs to hire employees with an understanding towards occupation health and safety.
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