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FEATURE OM
HOW TO ESTABLISH CULTURAL MATURITY
Many organisations aspire to cultural maturity, but there are no shortcuts to achieving it – nowhere more so than the critical sphere of health and safety. Tony Warren, Global Health, Safety & Property Compliance Manager at Charles Taylor, explains how inclusion, engagement and empowerment are a crucial part of the process.
Establishing cultural maturity within an organisation is a frequent topic of conversation between top-level management. It’s achieved through a process of evolution and progression to more developed states of learning, insight and understanding that support strategic goals. It effects lasting change, and a legacy of best practice embedded in every aspect of working life.
Cultural maturity manifests in many aspects of operations, but seeing it come to fruition in the critical realm of health and safety is the clearest sign of its arrival: a truly mature organisational culture values the wellbeing and safety of its colleagues.
Health and safety leaders are often frustrated by the obstacles that slow the journey to this destination. We’ve all heard the tired trope about health and safety being an administrative drag on day-to-day business. It’s still a commonly held view in the working environment. In reality, the opposite is true: health and safety not only safeguards people, but also helps to improve efficiency, reputation and profitability. The principles that foster a strong safety culture are the same that promote excellence in all areas of an organisation.
There are plenty of compelling points to make the case for a health and safety culture, but the challenge for senior leadership is achieving buy-in at every level of an organisation. It cannot be achieved by force, and health and safety by diktat is counterproductive. The key to
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unlocking it can be summed up in three words: inclusion, engagement, empowerment.
A comprehensive suite of health and safety guidance is an essential company-wide resource, but documents and videos alone are not enough for cultural maturity to take root. It needs to be supported by consistent communication and collaboration, engaging colleagues in safety discussions and actively seeking input from all levels of the workforce. All health and safety education and training should be viewed through that lens.
It’s an approach which is neatly encapsulated by some well-known words attributed to Confucius: “Tell me and I will forget, show me and I may remember; involve me and I will understand.”
Frontline managers, team leaders and supervisors are a fulcrum in that process. Interacting with the workforce on a daily basis, they are an instrumental voice at the beating heart of a business, uniquely positioned to influence behaviours, attitudes, and practices.
While policies may be developed at the top, they are implemented and lived out in the day-to-day activities of the organisation. True transformation in health and safety maturity occurs at the operational level. If frontline management are not fully engaged and committed to promoting safety, the broader initiatives set by upper management are likely to falter.
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