Leadership to Promote a Culture of Safety | DHPro

By Carola Hicks

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It is about effective leadership or, the process of directing the behavior of others toward the accomplishment of some common objectives; in this case working safely, in a safe environment. It does not mean that one person gets to ?boss? others but, does mean influencing people to get things done to a standard and quality to the benefit of office staff as well as patients.

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What is leadership that promotes a culture of safety?
Organizational culture consists of attitudes, values and beliefs that are demonstrated in the workplace on a daily basis and affect the mental and physical well-being of employees; such as

• respect
• appreciation
• commitment to?balanced workloads and job enrichment
• decision latitude
• employee involvement
• support for work-life?balance

Strong leaders recognize that solid health and safety performance drives business results. They promote a culture of safety in their organizations, and integrate prevention measures into business strategies, processes and performance measures.

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What the law says
The Occupational Health and Safety Act and regulations set out clear requirements for creating a safe and healthy physical work environment. Leaders go beyond meeting their legal obligations, and seek instead to meet the spirit of the law, knowing that organizational performance depends on healthy, safe, engaged employees.

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How leadership can help your organizational culture
Advocating within their practices for employee health and safety is a fundamental, achievable and critical role for leaders; it resonates powerfully at both a business and social level. The business case for health and safety resonates whether the organization is motivated by its bottom line, reputation, or social responsibility.

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What you can do
A prevention culture begins and ends with a leader?s passion for health and safety. CEOs, owners and other leaders in a dental practice can transform the workplace by:

• Making it personal -??who would tolerate an injury to oneself, one?s family members, or one?s?co-workers?
• Demonstrating that?health and safety matters by visibly implementing policies and procedures?specifically addressing employees? health and safety
• Making expectations?of staff known, and holding them accountable, for example, around the?critical issue of orientation training, which is often the weak link in an?organization?s health and safety performance

Organizational commitment to Workplace Health and Safety is an integral part of staff retention and well being. Increasing awareness and legislative emphasis is placing more responsibility on leaders to ensure that the health and safety of all individuals is recognized as a fundamental element of their businesses success.

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Health and safety are everyone?s responsibility; that is the basis of the Internal Responsibility System. It takes a good leader to ensure accountability; demonstrate your interest in creating safety by doing things yourself. Poor leaders don?t do what they ask others to do. Great leaders use their own actions to demonstrate what is important.

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Carola Hicks graduated from Dental Hygiene, University of Toronto and is founder and CEO of Workplace Safety Group, experts in workplace health & safety.

Email:? carola@workplacesafetygroup.com?

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Source: http://www.dhpro.ca/leadership-to-promote-a-culture-of-safety/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=leadership-to-promote-a-culture-of-safety

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