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Safety Means Success Labor and management working together towards a culture of safety By / Deb Draper
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t the 75th annual SMACNA Convention in October 2018, a panel of three safety experts discussed effective strategies to improve workplace health and safety along with organization performance during the session, “Elevating Your Safety Program to a Safety Culture.” One of the panelists, Donovan Seeber, vice-president of Corporate Safety at ACCO Engineered Systems, talked about how having a company-wide safety vision with safety as a core value is an essential ingredient for success. But what does having a safety culture really mean? “To begin, there is a big difference between having a safety program and a safety culture,” says SMACNA’s Director of Market Sectors & Safety, Michael McCullion. “A safety program
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is great, but often it’s just a binder up on a shelf collecting dust,” he says. “It will cover things like all the requirements for OSHA compliance, written programs, getting all the personal protective equipment, and logistics.” He explains that a safety program will have management or a safety director responsible for implementation, but in a safety culture everyone is responsible. “It’s getting people to believe in themselves and what’s important to them personally,” McCullion says. “It establishes an environment where they can feel comfortable reminding others to be safe.” That means safety must be a core value of the business. McCullion advises taking a three-pronged approach from the organizational standpoint when promoting a safety culture
