Developing a ZERO accident safety culture is a complex practice that can seem daunting, especially when trying to change a culture that has been in place for years or even decades. However changing the safety culture will be easy with the right guidance and support. You can learn to incorporate ZAC (Zero Accident Culture) across your organization. ZAC becomes more risk-based than just hazard-based, and your employees will become safety ambassadors of your organization.
The major challenge is getting management commitment. You just can't start to address cultural issues face to face without top management buy in. If top management is not committed then the safety program is not empowered to influence long-term changes to the workplace. It will result in a scenario like speeding down a dark alley with no headlights while heading towards a dead end.
To get management buy in do your homework.
- Quantify your plan by evaluating and trending your loss data, this will be your argument for changing your safety culture. Numbers do not lie. For example if the majority of your workers comp claims happened to employees who have been employed less than 3 months, this may be a result of poor safety orientation, safety training or mentorship of new employees. Another example is if rear ended other vehicle claims are the majority of your auto claims. Distracted driving, aggressive driving, or speeding may be the driving factors in these accidents, so start addressing the causation by training or using telematics to change driving behaviors.
- Setting and communicating your specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-based – or SMART – goals can help you manage the expectations of your company’s executives. This helps hold you and others within your organization accountable for the progress. This step should come after you and your team have identified and analyzed the risks you want to address, and before you start formulating solutions. Make your goal statement easy to understand, and avoid safety jargon or confusing acronyms. “SMART goals help leaders understand what you’re planning to achieve with your risk management process and really gives it visibility, whether you’re on a job site, in a manufacturing operation or product design process. It’s much more effective than a safety professional walking into a leader’s office and telling them everything that’s wrong.
- Show Me The Money! Once you can clearly explain your goals to your organization’s senior leadership, It’s time to show management the money. The number one way to get them interested is to clarify what’s in it for them and the organization. Great safety professionals, are able to put risk in terms that management understand, which is usually dollars or the potential impact on the organization’s reputation. Conducting financial and non-financial benefits analyses as part of your risk management business plan makes this type of communication possible. Non-financial or “soft” benefits are difficult to quantify, but they are directly tied to more measurable business objectives. They include elements such as the company’s ethical and legal standing, sustainability and employee turnover rate.
We help clients implement and achieve a ZAC culture by using the Catto Experience:
- Analyze - Exposure identification
- Design - Strategies to mitigate risk
- Implement - Procure and execute program
- Monitor - Ongoing measurement and adjustment
Using this patient, thoughtful and thorough approach to managing complex risk situations, we build personalized risk management solutions that go beyond mere product delivery. At Catto & Catto we develop strategies that help you govern and get the most value out of the solutions. The Catto & Catto Experience gives us a reliable framework for every solution, providing the flexibility to incorporate and test new ideas.
