How to Create a Company Culture that Prioritizes Safety

In high-risk industries, safety needs to be a mindset. Creating a culture where safety is second nature can yield a cascade of positive effects over time, including better employee morale and less downtime and liability. But shifting from rules on paper to behaviors in practice takes intention and follow-through.

7 Steps to a Safety-First Culture

You can’t just announce a safety initiative and expect long-term change. You have to weave safety into every part of your company culture, from leadership to onboarding to day-to-day communication. Here’s how you can make it happen.

• Model Safety from the Top Down

If you want safety to be a priority, your leadership team has to live it. Employees watch what you do more than they listen to what you say. If managers and supervisors cut corners, ignore protocols, or downplay safety concerns, the rest of your workforce will follow suit.

Make it clear through your actions that safety always comes first. That means wearing the appropriate PPE on site, following all procedures even when no one is watching, and actually taking the time to correct unsafe behavior immediately. When leaders lead by example, employees understand that safety is non-negotiable – not just lip service.

• Build Safety Into Your Onboarding Process

Your culture begins on day one. If new hires start their first week and safety is treated as an afterthought, you’re already setting the wrong tone. On the flip side, if safety is one of the very first topics you address, it sends a powerful message: this is how we work here.

Make safety training part of your standard onboarding process for every role, not just high-risk positions. Walk new employees through your procedures, introduce them to your safety team or committee, and give them clear instructions on how to report hazards or incidents.

This is also a great time to handle required certifications. For example, if your team will be operating forklifts, you can make sure they’re OSHA-compliant from the start. It’s surprisingly easy to certify your forklift operators – in many cases, it can be done online in as little as one hour. Getting it done early reinforces your commitment to safety while protecting your company from compliance issues later on.

• Keep Safety in the Conversation

Safety can’t be something you talk about once during training and then forget. It needs to be part of the ongoing conversation in your workplace. The more you talk about it, the more it becomes ingrained in daily habits.

Hold regular safety meetings or toolbox talks where you review recent incidents, discuss seasonal hazards, or introduce new equipment procedures. You should also post safety reminders in break rooms and high-traffic areas. 

• Reward Safe Behavior

Most people respond to positive reinforcement better than to threats or criticism. If you want your team to adopt safe practices, recognize and reward good behaviors when you see them. This doesn’t mean you have to hand out expensive prizes – even simple gestures can go a long way.

The key is to make safety feel like an achievement, not just a requirement. When employees are celebrated for doing things the right way, they’re more likely to keep it up.

• Encourage Employee-Led Safety Initiatives

Your employees are the ones on the front lines. They see the risks, challenges, and potential hazards long before management does. If you want your safety culture to thrive, give them ownership.

One way to do this is by creating a safety committee made up of employees from different departments. Give them a budget and the authority to run initiatives, suggest improvements, and lead training sessions. You can also encourage peer-to-peer safety checks, where workers hold each other accountable for following procedures.

• Respond Quickly to Safety Concerns

Nothing kills a safety culture faster than ignoring employee concerns. If someone reports a hazard and you don’t take it seriously, it sends the message that safety is negotiable – or worse, that speaking up is pointless.

The key is to make it easy for employees to report safety issues, whether it’s in person, via a dedicated phone line, or through an anonymous form. Then, act on those reports quickly and visibly. Even if the concern turns out to be minor, addressing it promptly shows that you’re committed to creating a safe work environment.

• Make Safety Part of Performance Metrics

If safety is truly a priority, it should be reflected in how you evaluate performance. This could mean adding safety compliance to annual reviews, incorporating safety goals into project plans, or tying bonuses to safety outcomes. Whatever it is, make it tangible and quantifiable so that everyone can stay on the same page.

Safety as an Identity

When safety becomes part of your company’s cultural DNA, it stops feeling like an extra task and starts feeling like a natural part of the job. Creating this kind of culture doesn’t happen overnight. But the payoff – in morale, productivity, and long-term success – is worth it.