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SAFETY … Perception vs. Reality

By: Matt Edmonds, CHST and Pam Tompkins, CSP, CUSP

In today’s world perceptions can sometimes be a far cry from reality. We often hear and see things that shape our perceptions and that is no different in the workplace. Many times reality is buried so deep inside perceptions it is hard to hit the truth mark.  

An Employee’s perception of safety will often dictate their attitude toward safety on the job. If workers at your company were asked, “Who is responsible for your safety?” Would their answer be, “the Safety Director” or would it be “I am”? The perception may be that the Safety Director is responsible for their safety however the reality is that we are all responsible for our own safety. How employees answer this question can be a good indicator of the safety culture of the company. Often the perception of a company’s safety process may vary greatly depending on the different levels of employees. For example, Management’s perception of a company’s safety process may be that it is among the best in the industry because there haven’t been many accidents, however field employees’ perception may be just the opposite because they feel like no one cares about them, and the reality of the safety process condition may be somewhere in the middle. How does knowing employees’ perception about a company’s existing safety process help develop a strong safety culture? The answer is simple: it’s impossible to get where you are going if you don’t know where you are, and that is true with a company’s safety culture.

Safety perception surveys can easily provide anonymous results so that companies can have an accurate view of employees’ perception of their safety processes. In the past, surveys were difficult and costly to manage because they were typically conducted in a one-on-one interview process. However, today’s technology has made surveys much easier logistically and much more cost effective. Surveys can easily be conducted through an online process making it much easier for employees to schedule the survey at their convenience.   These surveys collect all data online so there is no need for an on-site visit to conduct one-on-one interviews. This may be a positive as employees may be more apt to give true answers when they know they are not answering questions from an interviewer.

A safety perception survey report will help identify the good, the bad and the ugly! When questions are answered truthfully, the analyzed data can give a great idea of where a company is in regards to safety and identify possible deficiencies. Once they have been identified, a management plan can be developed and implemented to address those deficiencies and point the safety culture in the proper direction.