Participate in workplace safety procedures

The culture within an organisation is made up of all the attitudes, beliefs, expectations, and actions of everyone involved. Developing a culture of safety in the workplace is a strong, positive step towards workplace health and safety management.  A culture of safety encourages teamwork, effective communication, the expression of new ideas, cooperation and flexibility.

A culture of safety should be the aim of every service because it means:

• decreased risk of injuries to clients, visitors and workers
• decreased costs associated with injuries
• decreased absenteeism because of injury or work-related stress
• strengthening of the organisation's image within the community as one of quality and professionalism.

The key points in developing a strong, positive culture of safety are:

• commitment and consultation
• documentation
• evaluation and continuous improvement
• training
• open communication.

As a worker in your particular setting, your participation is important to the success of workplace health and safety (WHS) management.