The safety first approach is a philosophy and set of practices that prioritize safety and risk management in all operations and decision making. The goal is to proactively identify hazards, assess risks, and implement controls to prevent incidents and injuries before they occur. It calls for a focus on safety at all levels of an organization, from frontline workers to executives.
Why is the safety first approach important?
There are several key reasons why the safety first approach is critical:
- It helps create an inherently safer workplace by designing out hazards rather than relying solely on reactive controls.
- It protects the health and safety of workers by reducing exposures and the risk of incidents.
- It reduces financial costs associated with injuries, damage, production losses, and legal liabilities.
- It builds a strong safety culture based on shared vigilance, open reporting, and proactive risk management.
- It fulfills moral and legal responsibilities to provide safe working conditions.
In short, the safety first approach aims to place safety at the forefront and as a key priority in how decisions are made and how work is performed. It acknowledges that workplace injuries and incidents are preventable through proper planning and engagement by all parties.
What are the key principles of safety first?
There are several core principles that embody the safety first philosophy:
- Risk management: Proactively identify hazards and assess risks, then implement engineered controls, safe procedures, protective equipment, training, and other measures to eliminate or mitigate risks before work begins.
- Design for safety: Incorporate safety into the design of equipment, processes, materials, systems, and layouts rather than adding on controls later. The aim is to design out hazards where possible.
- Safety integrated into all activities: Seamlessly incorporate safety measures and considerations into all job tasks and business functions rather than treating safety as a separate program.
- Shared ownership: Everyone from frontline workers to senior leaders takes shared responsibility for safety. Safety must be both a personal value and a company priority.
- Open communication: Create open channels for workers to voice concerns, report issues, suggest improvements, and discuss safety without fear of blame or retaliation.
- Continuous improvement: Set goals, measure progress, audit systems, and continuously improve safety performance across the organization.
What are some key aspects of the safety first approach?
Here are some of the key aspects and practices of a workplace with a strong safety first approach:
- Senior leadership demonstrates a visible commitment to safety as a core value.
- Hazard identification and risk assessments are performed for all operations and changes.
- Workers are deeply involved in safety planning and risk management.
- Design of equipment, facilities and processes proactively eliminates hazards.
- Safe work procedures and permits are used for high-risk tasks.
- Training ensures all workers are competent to do their jobs safely.
- Personal protective equipment is provided and used where needed.
- Inspections, observations and audits verify controls are in place.
- Safety metrics and indicators are tracked to drive improvement.
- Incidents are thoroughly investigated for root causes.
- Lessons learned are shared across the organization.
- Safety system and performance are continuously reviewed and improved.
How can organizations implement a safety first approach?
Shifting to a safety first culture takes concerted effort, but is very worthwhile. Some strategies to implement this approach include:
- Get commitment from leadership. The CEO and management team must fully embrace safety as a core value.
- Assess current state. Conduct a gap analysis of existing safety practices versus desired state.
- Integrate safety into systems. Build safety into processes for purchasing, contracting, design, training, and more.
- Empower the workforce. Provide resources and authority for workers to participate in safety improvements.
- Improve hazard identification. Train workers on proactive hazard ID and implement risk assessment procedures.
- Upgrade controls. Invest in engineering solutions, guards, automation, and other controls to design out hazards.
- Enhance competency. Strengthen new hire orientation, skills training, coaching, and verification of qualifications.
- Learn from experience. Develop robust incident investigation and sharing of lessons learned.
- Drive continuous improvement. Use safety observations, audits, and metrics to monitor performance and target solutions.
- Reward success. Recognize individuals and teams who demonstrate excellence in safety performance.
The transition takes time and allocation of resources. Utilizing consultants or advisors can provide guidance. But the effort pays tremendous dividends in lives saved, injuries prevented and operational resilience.
What are common safety first techniques?
Some specific techniques commonly used under the safety first approach include:
- Job hazard analysis (JHA): A systematic process to identify hazards of a job, assess risks, and determine appropriate controls. JHAs are conducted for new operations or when processes change.
- Failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA): Examines potential equipment or process failures, effects, and criticality to prioritize risk reduction measures.
- Hierarchical control: Controls hazards by relying first on elimination or substitution, then engineering controls, followed by warnings, procedures, training, and PPE.
- Safety audits: Formal, systematic assessment of conformance to standards and good practices. Used to identify gaps, share good practices, and drive continuous improvements.
- Pre-task safety reviews: Briefings before non-routine or high-hazard work to verify procedures, competency, permits, and readiness.
- Inspections: Proactive checks of facilities, materials, equipment, and hazardous conditions to identify issues and take corrective actions.
- Safety observations: Brief interactions that provide teaching moments and increase risk awareness through positive feedback and coaching.
- Risk registers: Track identified hazards and hazards to ensure appropriate controls are maintained and monitored.
What are leading and lagging safety indicators?
Safety performance measurement tracks both leading and lagging indicators:
- Leading indicators monitor the proactive systems that drive safety, such as training completed, inspections conducted, risk assessments performed, safety meetings held, and safety suggestions submitted.
- Lagging indicators track reactive outcomes that already occurred, such as recordable incidents, lost time claims, first aids given, near misses, and property damage incidents. They demonstrate failures in control systems.
Effective safety management requires tracking both types to understand risk patterns and performance trends. Leading indicators represent a safety first approach aimed at prevention, while lagging indicators show effectiveness of controls.
Examples of Leading Safety Indicators
| Safety training completion rate | 95% |
| Workplace inspections completed | 85% |
| Safety procedure reviews conducted | 100% |
| Risk assessments performed | 90% |
Examples of Lagging Safety Indicators
| Recordable injury rate | 2.3 per 100 FTE |
| Lost time claims | 1 |
| First aid cases | 14 |
| Near miss reports | 430 |
What are the benefits of the safety first approach?
Adopting a safety first approach offers many advantages, including:
- Preventing workplace injuries, illnesses and fatalities
- Averting damage to equipment, property and the environment
- Avoiding work disruptions and improving productivity
- Reducing workers’ compensation and liability costs
- Boosting employee morale, engagement and retention
- Enhancing reputation with customers and stakeholders
- Instilling public confidence in the organization’s operations
- Fulfilling legal and ethical obligations for safety
Investing in safety has a substantial return through direct cost savings as well as improved workforce, community, and stakeholder relations. It demonstrates that people are valued over production or profits.
What are challenges or obstacles to a safety first approach?
Transitioning to a robust safety first culture takes resources and perseverance to overcome common challenges, including:
- Difficulty sustaining management commitment over the long-term
- Inadequate staffing and budget allocation
- Competing priorities that allow safety to take a back seat
- Poor understanding of human factors and system safety principles
- Lack of trust and open communication channels
- Insufficient skills in hazard identification, risk analysis, and safety management
- Reactivity and focus on personal safety rather than process safety
- Complacency after periods of low incident rates
Overcoming these hurdles requires systematically addressing root causes like flawed incentives, lack of empowerment, knowledge gaps, and absence of safety leadership. A long-term commitment from executives and inclusion of the workforce is key to driving change.
Conclusion
A safety first approach centered on proactive risk management creates an inherently safer and healthier workplace. It demonstrates an organization’s core values and commitment to providing world-class protection for its employees. While progress takes time, the rewards are immense in prevented tragedies, lives saved, reduced costs, and improved operations. With strong and persistent leadership, a culture of openness and trust, and systems to sustain continuous improvement, any organization can reap the many benefits of truly placing safety first.