Step 4
Grow a Culture of Safety
What?
Simply complying with a policy is the minimum expectation from employees. The ultimate goal is for employees to embrace their role in creating a culture of safety throughout the organization. This means employees actively make the workplace safer by discussing what is appropriate and reminding one another about safe driving practices. In other words, there is a general expectation that people look out for each other and speak up when concerned.
Why?
Growing a culture of safe driving in the workplace makes sense from both the employer’s and employee’s perspectives:
For Employers:
- Motor vehicle crashes cost employers up to $60 billion annually in medical care, legal expenses, property damage, lost productivity, sick days, health and disability insurance, and workers’ compensation. Reducing the number of crashes your employees are involved in can make an important impact on your company’s bottom line.
- You already focus on safety in your workplace. Including a focus on distracted driving in your workplace safety plan makes it even more comprehensive.
- Most employees spend 8 or more hours each day at work. Your workplace is not just a place of employment, it is a place to start important conversations that spread beyond your workplace into the community. By growing a culture of safety in your workplace, you help the communities where your employees live as well.
For Employees:
- Whether driving for work or personal reasons, everyone is impacted by distracted driving.
- Your employees care about and watch out for their coworkers in many other ways. Now, you can create a safer workplace by using a team approach to reduce distracted driving.
- Most employees know they should not engage in distracted driving behaviors. Yet, they aren’t sure how to address it when someone drives distracted. Learning new skills to speak up might help save a life of a coworker, family member, or friend. Speaking up can prevent other unsafe behaviors as well.
A Culture of Safety Where Everyone Plays a Part
Workplace safety requires everyone – not just drivers – to do their part. Creating a workplace culture that supports responsible and safe driving involves top level leaders, management, supervisors, and front-line staff.
Training employees on simple behaviors like speaking up when a safety policy is violated can foster a culture of safety. This involves training employees about what to do as a passenger or bystander if a driver is not fully engaged in the driving task.
Speaking up does not have to be complicated. In fact, when all staff receive the same training about speaking up, it becomes much easier because both the speaker and the recipient know what to expect.
Step 4 Tools
Conversations about Safety
After the training on the policy, staff at all levels of the organization should engage in conversations. These conversations will significantly increase the effectiveness of the policy. These can be conducted in small groups during existing meetings like staff meetings or periodic safety meetings. Topics include:
Applying the Policy in Your Setting: Everyone (at all levels of the organization) should engage in a conversation about how the distracted driving policy will impact operations in their specific setting. See Tool 4A. Applying the Policy in Your Setting.
Speaking Up in the Workplace: A culture of safety means individuals make healthy choices and are empowered and comfortable speaking up when they see others making unsafe choices. See Tool 4B. Speaking Up in the Workplace.
Growing Proactive Traffic Safety: Ultimately, a culture of safety includes growing proactive behaviors demonstrating commitment to safety beyond oneself to include the safety of others. Growing proactive traffic safety involves all employees. See Tool 4C. Growing Proactive Traffic Safety.
Following Up on Policy Implementation: Over time, we can become complacent and revert back to old ways of doing things. Periodically, all staff should revisit the implementation of the policy and recommit to following it. See Tool 4D. Following Up on Policy Implementation.
Washington Distracted Driving Law
In creating and implementing a workplace policy, it is important to understand current laws in Washington. In Washington, it is against the law to use your cell phone while you are driving.
Laws explicitly include both text-based communications and talking on the phone while driving without appropriate hands-free devices.
Washington also acknowledges that a wide variety of other behaviors could distract a driver and result in dangerously distracted driving. An officer can cite a driver for engaging in any activity not related to the actual operation of the motor vehicle in a manner that interferes with its safe operation. See: https://wadrivetozero.com/distracted-driving/ for more information about the laws.