Companies that are at the top of their safety game obtain the best improvement information from their workers.
Safety perception surveys are essential safety performance measurement tools. For more than 40 years renowned safety leaders such as Dan Petersen have advocated their use. Many times, Petersen has been quoted as saying, “there is no better predictor of safety performance than a safety perception survey”. Surveys reveal information critical to safety improvement that is not revealed by other methods of measurement such as auditing. The purpose of this article is to explain why safety perception surveys should be considered your company’s first safety performance measurement option.
Despite all company efforts to improve worker health and safety, the persistently high number of serious incidents and fatalities suggests we still have a great deal of preventive work to do. Given the limitations of the two methods of measurement explained above, it is hard to understand why the safety profession has been so committed to them as primary measures of safety success. Companies recognized as having “best in class” safety systems, all obtain their best improvement information from their employees. Safety perception surveys are generally used to collect this information. This article will help explain what these companies know that others may not. Here are five key reasons why companies should consider safety perception surveys as a prime measurement option.
- Safety Culture
A strong and positive culture is essential for creating an effective health and safety program. Sometimes during the implementation period, companies assigned a single point of contact, who may leave the company at some stage, taking with them all knowledge about the safety platform.
Surveys give us a better understanding of what is needed. Safety perception surveys evaluate how effective the system is and provide insights on how they might be improved.
- Employees’ perceptions are a reality, anonymous comments are key.
In most cases, perceptions are not taken into consideration. But those perceptions represent your employees’ reality on a daily basis. Employees’ perceptions should never be dismissed, once they are revealed they should be taken into consideration to make a positive impact in the future. At the same time, if we create an environment where the employees feel free to express their points of view every process can be made more transparent and effective, putting fears aside.
- Surveys can reveal perception Gaps
If there is a department that perceives completely different benefits and disadvantages than others, there could be an existing gap in communication or there is a need for more training in that department, but the only way to realize this is being aware of everyone’s perceptions.
- Improvements and Opportunities
Open the door for management to engage with workers specifically on issues raised by certain employee groups. For example, new employees may express the need to improve training programmes or inductions.
- Making a real difference
Employees want to be able to say they didn’t just maintain the status quo – they helped make their company a safer place to work, they used every tool available to them to help improve safety in their company. The effectiveness of health and safety programs is tested when employees are asked to rate them. There is no better test than a perception survey that asks employees to rate various aspects of the health and safety program.
We encourage you to test the effectiveness of our programme by listening to what the end-user has to say about what can be improved? At CGA Technology we firmly believe in our clients’ input as more than 60% of our developments and improvements come from our actual clients, so we hear you out. Now it’s time that you hear your team. What are they going to tell you?
Ehstoday.com. (2020). Ryan D. [online] Available at: https://www.ehstoday.com/safety-leadership/article/21920506/10-reasons-why-a-safety-perception-survey-should-be-your-first-measurement-option.
