The main cause of most workplace accidents and injuries is unknowing human error. Employees do not follow safety instructions or basic rules, nor do they intervene when they see activities or habits that threaten safety.

Injuries usually have direct costs associated with them in companies: medical costs, wage replacement, and claims by injured workers. However, indirect costs in the form of damaged equipment and products, loss of productivity and quality, replacement labor/overtime and training, increased insurance costs, litigation costs, deterioration of customer relations and the overall image of the organization in the community are less well perceived.

A safe organization culture is based on changing the visible (conscious) things such as structure, systems and procedures, but also, and most importantly, on changing and making visible the invisible (unconscious) things such as values, beliefs, attitudes, underlying assumptions, simply the “unwritten rules”.

Safe behaviour is not changed by OSH training alone. Changing attitudes requires more than training or management intent. It is created by a shared process of acceptance and learning new skills based on immediate feedback directly in the workplace, independent of employee positions.

Each employee’s ability to recognize risk and intervene early gradually removes invisible barriers to achieving higher levels of workplace safety.

Goals and Benefits

Examples of Benefits