The ability to do a job safely is a very important habit to possess. Unfortunately, many companies do not assist their workers to work safely.

Good safety practices start with people having the skills to do their jobs. An operator of heavy equipment needs to be competent to operate the machine and a builder must be skilled in the use of their tools.

This is not enough– highly skilled people can still perform the job very unsafely. Unsafe behaviours includes the myriad of shortcuts and ‘work-arounds’ people come up with when they do their work. These shortcuts are seldom because a person does not know better; they simply try to make the job easier by breaking the written and even the unwritten rules. More training is not the answer: it is not a skills shortage. The person already knows the right way but chooses the shortcut. Rather, the answer lies in changing attitudes; changing the culture of the whole organisation.

This word ‘culture’ is often misunderstood. Some people use it as if it is a mystical and very vague thing. It is not; culture of an organisation is simply the collective noun for all the habits of the people in that organisation. And it is the same for everyone, irrespective if you are a labourer, a machine operator, a supervisor or even the Managing Director of the company: when you get on a roof you wear a safety harness. Not because there is a law saying you should, but simply because that is what we do around here … all of us!

When good behaviours become the habits of people that is what will happen in the company. Think about it: what is a habit? It is those things you do when you don’t even think about it.

When people perform these good behaviours out of habit, they will have fewer accidents, make fewer mistakes, cause less damage to machines and products and ultimately be more productive. A good outcome overall.

Adapto enables employers to harness the positive elements of workplace safety rather than only concentrating on legal compliance.