At one manufacturer, employees have made their daily pre-shift AlertMeter® tests a communal event, in which they proudly demonstrate to each other that they are fit for work. They are one example of a company embracing the use of technology to evolve its safety culture in the workplace.
Permanent changes to workplace safety cultures can and do occur within organizations, just as they occur more broadly in communities of people and society at large. When they do occur, what brings on the change? And more importantly, how are they sustained?
When looking at culture at the level of the greater society, certain triggers of cultural change become easier to see, if not plainly evident, and a long list of examples can be easily thought of: the camera, the phonograph, the telephone, the airplane, the automobile, radio, television, the microwave oven, the computer, and the Internet. The advent of these things effectively changed our world and how we interact with it and each other. They made certain things possible or easier to do, and they affected cultural change because they became widely accessible and commonplace, fixed features of modern life that people would now likely struggle without.
Given that technology is a staple factor of cultural shifts on a large scale, it would seem that cultural shifts at a smaller scale—within a safety-sensitive workplace—may be better spurred by new technologies too. But when it occurs in the workplace, long-term positive cultural change is often led by the workforce rather than imposed upon them by management.
Therefore, it seems that an effective safety technology whose use is championed by employees would help bring about a positive workplace cultural shift more effectively.
As it happens, Predictive Safety has seen this happen repeatedly in its own clients. At one manufacturer, employees have made their daily pre-shift AlertMeter® tests a communal event, in which they proudly demonstrate to each other that they are fit for work, not for their employer's benefit, but for each other and the sake of their safety. For them, the ninety seconds it takes to complete the AlertMeter® impairment test is not a burden of time nor effort, it is an important demonstration of ability and readiness to their coworkers.
We continue to hear examples of positive change like this as more companies are adopting the AlertMeter® and/or PRISM platforms, and better addressing safety and performance cultures among their workforces. Let us show you how your company's organizational and safety culture can be similarly transformed.
