After 25 years of being in the industrial safety profession, I have heard the debate about “culture” to the point it has become ridiculous. I was very fortunate to work for two of the finest plant managers early in my career and both of these men were strong leaders and the safety of those in their plant was without a doubt their #1 concern. And both of these men would tell me virtually the same thing when it came down to culture vs. compliance and you know what, they were both so right.
Can we say we have a good “safety culture” if we are not meeting the bare bones minimum OSHA requirements that have been around since 1972?
We can not fool ourselves by thinking that mere compliance is an indicator of a good safety culture; however, without a high degree of compliance with the OSHA minimums, we can not honestly say our safety culture is good.
