Providing a safe workplace for staff, contractors, clients and visitors lays the foundation for organizational excellence.
This includes both financial and operational performance. Coupled with these benefits for business though should lie unpinned ethical principles that include:
- Value for human life. The agreement that the preservation and protection of human life supersedes all other goals
- Integrity. Telling the truth and keeping promises to employees and clients
- Justice. The strong sense of fair dealing that employees should feel from their employer and it’s management
- Excellence and continuous improvement. The belief that whatever level of safety we have achieved, there is always the opportunity to improve
Ethics in Health Safety Definition
Before we discuss further ethics in health and safety. Let us first define what we are talking about.
Ethics can be identified as the standards of conduct and moral values governing the actions and decisions taken in the work environment.
The health and safety manager or professional should be true to the employee and strive to promote a safe working environment.
This may sometimes prove difficult for some health and safety staff as the reality is that it is the employer, not the employee, who pays their wages. And it is that institution that they are therefore beholden to.
Punishments for Health and Safety
In the Middle East there is a bad trend that we often witness which sees employees fined for health and safety violations. To compound the problem. Often these fines are meted out to the lowest paid, lowest skilled and worst informed of employees.
While we understand the importance of consequences or actions linked to rules and regulations. The consideration of a more holistic approach would often be the more ethical and, dare we say, effective, stance.
Codes of ethics can be developed by companies, with or without external assistance. These can then further be used to identify, analyze and resolve ethical dilemmas encountered by health and safety staff. Demonstrating good company governance and social responsibility.
In todays world, ethics also overlaps with corporate social responsibility. They beg the questions “What does a company owe their employees, customers, shareholders and the community at large ? “How does a companies fulfilment of these obligations ensure the long-term sustainability of the company ?”
Leading With Ethical Health and Safety
A culture that truly values ethical and safe behavior must be led by leaders committed to safety for its own sake,. Not safety solely for the purpose of compliance or the retention of profits.
Good safety provides tangible proof that doing the right thing always deserves a companies best efforts !
An Ethical Principle Driven Health and Safety Culture
What do health and safety principles look like when weaved into a companies culture?
Cultural factors predictive of desired ethical and safety outcomes can include:
- Procedural justice. If leaders are perceived to be making decisions in fair ways, workers assume they can follow instructions without fear of mistreatment
- Open and candid upward communications. In an environment where managers and leaders respond well to communications from the lower ranks of an organization. Even to bad or unpleasant news. Issues are more likely to surface early before they become a crisis
- Inclination of workers to approach peers on sensitive issues. A culture can be fostered whereby it is acceptable and expected that employees approach each other about difficult issues surrounding safety and also ethics in safety
- Management credibility. Employees who see their managers and leaders as credible are more likely to take personal responsibility for their performance and support new initiatives. Including safety initiatives
Ethics in Accident Investigation
In some cases, safety can be used as a tool to control and discipline, belittle or even punish. A ritual to be undertaken. A risk assessment for example, can be used to allocate jobs and tell people what they should do. Without listening, understanding or making a connection with those people or their work tasks
If undertaken with ethics, health and safety can produce opportunities to listen, to learn, to build trust, to collaborate and influence practices that can help us in achieving meaningful safety change.
Take safety briefings. Instead of one way traffic with one person speaking, these can instead be used to spark conversation, exchange and questions. Reminding us of how important it is to treat people with respect and connect with them if we really want to understand their decisions and actions.
In almost all cases, opening conversations with open-ended questions such as “Tell me about yourself” or “Where would you like us to start?” signal that we are interested in the person. This technique may sound very simple, but it is practicing the ethics of care. Such open questions can also be accompanied by effective non-verbal communication and non-judgmental listening. Try for yourself and let us know your results !
Contact us !
If you are looking for an HSE Consultant in the UAE, Corporate OHS is a Health and Safety Consultancy services provider whose HSE Consultants offer expert resources and superior performance to give you greater results.
We specialize in creating workable, user friendly solutions aligned to your business activities, operations and budget.
Our range of health and safety consultancy services includes;
- Health and Safety Risk Assessments
- Hazard identification and control measure implementation
- Gap Analysis
- Audits and compliance audits
- HSE management system development, implementation and review including locally compliant systems such as OSHAD or OSHJ and/or accredited systems such as ISO 45001, ISO 14001,
ISO 9001 and ISO 50001 - HSE legal compliance reviews and assistance
- Accident investigations
- Business continuity and crisis management
- Long term or project based HSE outsourcing
- Flexible monthly support retainers giving access to HSE service without the burden of a permanent cost
To find out more about our services, please visit our website www.corporateohs.com or send an email to enquiries@corporateohs.com, or call 00 971 4 550 7862.
