An organization’s employees may turn out to be its greatest untapped safety resource, according to an annual survey conducted by the industrial equipment and services company Fluke.
The broad-based poll of industrial workers found just over half (55.9%) said they have ideas on how to make the industry a safer place to work.
The importance of a workplace culture of safety has remained steady in surveys conducted over the past three-year-period. Respondents agree that the right culture positively impacts worker safety.
“Gaining buy-in for a safety culture has proven to be the most challenging piece, but at the same time it is the most important part,” one repondent said.
Despite 98% of the 2022 workers polled agreeing (strongly agree or agree responses) that a strong culture of safety is important in keeping workers safe, only 37% agree that most companies have one.
Fluke notes that responses to this issue have become more negative over the three years of the survey. As one worker put it succinctly, “Signs and verbiage are not a safety culture.”
In addition, over the past three-year-period, sentiment around the adequacy of safety training has moved 11.5% away from disagree (disagree and strongly disagree). However, less than 1% of that change in sentiment wenty toward agree (strongly agree and agree).
This adjustment could be due to changing sentiment, a lack of agreement on what “adequate” safety training looks like and what it means, or may represent an actual increase or decrease in training, Fluke says. At least 68.1% of respondents agree (strongly agree and agree) that they participate in safety training and classes.
Also, 72.3% say they rely on the technology in their tools and other equipment to keep them safe at work, although it is not known if this includes innovative technologies, safety standards or some combination of the two.