3.1 Health and safety culture

Which is an indicator of poor health and safety culture?

• 1 High worker turnover and many complaints about conditions
• 2 High worker participation
• 3 Few incidents and good compliance
• 4 Low absenteeism

Health and safety culture is best described as:

• 1 The number of safety signs
• 2 Shared attitudes, values and behaviour about health and safety
• 3 The written safety policy
• 4 The company's insurance

New workers often learn unsafe habits mainly because of:

• 1 Peer influence
• 2 Written policy
• 3 Government posters
• 4 Insurance rules

Which of these is an indicator of a good safety culture?

• 1 Workers follow rules only when watched
• 2 Workers follow rules because they believe in them
• 3 Near misses are hidden
• 4 Complaints about conditions are ignored

Which of these is used as an indicator of health and safety culture?

• 1 The size of the car park
• 2 The number of directors
• 3 The colour of the notice board
• 4 Absenteeism and sickness rates

Which measure alone is the safest basis for judging culture?

• 1 The turnover rate alone
• 2 The number of accidents alone
• 3 None, because culture is judged from several indicators together
• 4 The number of posters alone

Why is peer influence important for culture?

• 1 New workers copy what experienced colleagues actually do
• 2 Peers set exposure limits
• 3 Peers decide the law
• 4 Peers write the policy

A poor safety culture is likely to show as:

• 1 Prompt reporting of near misses
• 2 Regular worker consultation
• 3 High competence and training
• 4 Frequent rule breaking that supervisors accept

Complaints about working conditions are an indicator because they:

• 1 Give the number of machines
• 2 Prove the law was broken
• 3 Show the size of the workforce
• 4 Show workers' views about how safety is managed

High worker turnover can indicate:

• 1 Poor working conditions or morale
• 2 A good culture
• 3 A good policy
• 4 Perfect training

Safety culture is best summed up as:

• 1 How things are really done when nobody is watching
• 2 What the law requires
• 3 What the policy says
• 4 What the auditor writes

A culture in which workers do not report near misses because they fear blame is:

• 1 Positive, because of low numbers
• 2 Weak, because early warnings are lost
• 3 Neutral, because nothing happened
• 4 Strong, because there are few reports

Which statement about low accident numbers and culture is correct?

• 1 Accident numbers have no link to culture
• 2 Low accident numbers always prove a good culture
• 3 Low accident numbers alone do not prove a good culture
• 4 Only high numbers matter

Which is a sign that an organisation has a positive safety culture?

• 1 Workers are blamed first
• 2 Managers take part in inspections and act on findings
• 3 Managers avoid the shop floor
• 4 Safety is left to one person

New workers pick up unsafe shortcuts mainly because:

• 1 They copy colleagues who take the shortcuts
• 2 Insurance requires it
• 3 The law allows it
• 4 The policy asks for it