A Case Study on Safety Culture

construction safetyI like this a lot, especially because of the safety culture concepts it reinforces.  I’m referring to an article that appeared last month on the EHS Today website.  It’s an article written by a safety culture practitioner (also an ES&H manager) at Bechtel, a construction industry giant.  The author points out (for all the right reasons) that, for them, safety is a core value not a priority.  The emphasis on creating a culture of leadership and coaching is also refreshing to see, especially the method of “more asking, less telling.”

Mostly I like the appeal to family members and their dependency on the worker to provide for their needs as a primary driver of that culture.  Anyone who subscribes to our Recordable INSIGHTS Newsletter knows we have pointed to all these things as absolutely essential to driving a safety culture.  Kudos to Bechtel!

Full article available here.

About the Author

Eric Svendsen
Eric Svendsen, Ph.D., is Principal and lead change agent for safetyBUILT-IN, a safety-leadership learning and development organization. He has over 20 years experience in creating and executing outcomes-based leadership development and culture change initiatives aligned to organizational goals, and he personally led the safety-culture initiatives of a number of client organizations that resulted in “best ever safety performance” years for those companies.