How safe is your workplace? ZoneSafe can improve safety culture in recycling.

What is safety culture?

The HSE (Health and Safety Executive) explain that safety culture is:

‘The safety culture of an organisation is the product of individual and group values, attitudes, perceptions, competencies and patterns of behaviour that determine the commitment to, and the style and proficiency of, an organisation’s health and safety management.’ 

Putting a safety management system in place is important, but so is an organisation’s culture. The culture of a business can actually have a bigger impact. Improving safety culture in the workplace ensures that both management and employees remain committed to upholding safety standards.

But how can you build and retain a positive safety culture in your recycling company?

Here are some helpful pointers:

Communication is crucial.

Improving communication should be at the heart of any business. It’s a key strategy for those looking into how to improve safety culture in the workplace.

Get people of ALL levels to talk to each other about the risks and dangers in your business.  This often unearths other concerns. Group communication also works as a way to improve trust between lower level employees and upper management. Change to more effective and efficient communication, and this can lead to further improvement within the company. This can also help to make developments of methods to complete tasks better and faster. Communication is the key!

Give responsibility.

Improving your workplace safety culture involves your staff; and defining responsibilities for them is important, as they are the integral part of any business. Discuss what do in the event of an accident or emergency, and have an action plan readily available. It is also important to define safety responsibilities and who is involved in decision making, policies and procedures. Having a chain of command is a sensible answer to these – and defining your chain of command is a great way to retain workplace safety and to work on employee welfare.

Establishing hazards.

Maintaining workplace safety means identifying and tracking existing hazards. This can show where certain parts of your recycling business are the most vulnerable. Track your potential hazards – this is the most proactive measure you can take and can keep a business one step ahead. Predict where accidents may occur – and put preventative measures in place. Not sure how to track potential risks? Use software applications and interfaces to help you – ZoneSafe’s data management, Insight, can do just that. It provides essential information about potential hazards, and displays all information in a user friendly, graphical report format. Find out more about Insight here.

It’s normal to find the idea of building or changing your safety culture daunting – especially if your staff has fallen into a pattern of complacency. Yet the effects can be catastrophic: serious accidents, illnesses, injuries – even loss of life can result from workplace complacency.

Boost awareness

ZoneSafe’s philosophy includes increasing awareness and improving site safety – and that implementing their safety applications can drastically improve the workplace safety culture.

ZoneSafe Proximity Warning and Alert Systems do more than just give industrial vehicle drivers (such as forklift trucks, reach stackers or excavators) an alert to a pedestrian worker close by.

Over the years, the standard ZoneSafe system has been developed and re-engineered to include new applications and systems such as personnel and vehicle access control, walkway and crossing alerts, and asset protection.

ZoneSafe helps to improve safety culture

One of the most interesting comments from recycling clients who use ZoneSafe is not just how well the system works but that also the safety culture and environment drastically changes within a work site.

Rather than taking that shortcut across the yard, pedestrian workers don’t want to set the proximity alarm off on a vehicle so they automatically give the vehicle a wide berth. This makes for a much safer work site as the pedestrian worker starts to automatically work safer as second nature, perhaps even becoming ‘zone safe’.

Improve the safety culture on your recycling site in one easy step – install ZoneSafe.

For further information about ZoneSafe, click here.