Part 1: Creating a Safety Culture at Your Marina – Build a Culture of Safety, Not Fear

When is the right time to create a culture of safety at your marina? The time is always right to start or improve the safety culture embedded in your marina operations. Developing or improving a culture of safety targeted toward preventing marina team and customer injuries shows everyone on your property that you care about their well-being.

The strength of your culture directly impacts the overall health of your organization. Culture is an integral part of your success, so the first phase is to develop the strategy and tactics you will use to measure progress and impact. In other words, conduct a job safety analysis (JSA) to break down the specific jobs or tasks needed to put safety at the forefront.

Promote Accountability
Leaders must be aware of one simple fact – employee expectations are different today. Employees want collaboration and development, and they want to know that their piece of the puzzle is valued. Employees also want to know that they are valued as individuals. They want their organization and leaders to prioritize their well-being and the well-being of all visiting their properties.

A team leader needs to commit to safety on all levels of the organization, establishing responsibilities for each of those levels that include measurable goals, policies and plans. Consider discussing safety at the initial interview when hiring, which sets the tone from day one.

Demonstrate the Value of Safety
Managers should make it clear to all employees that they can report any hazard or incident without fear of repercussions. It is also especially important to report any near misses to prevent any future injury. You can use an anonymous reporting structure to encourage shy employees to communicate hazards. Reinforce that incidents may happen.

Provide the time, training, resources and equipment to do the job safely. Managers should explain to all staff that there’s always time to do things safely, and it is never acceptable to work in an unsafe manner. Remember that if you provide incentives for achieving zero injuries you may only be rewarding zero reporting, which can increase the risk of injuries.

Finally, recognize that management must act quickly on decisions. Quick action builds trust.

Create a Safety Captain
The first step to improving a safety culture action plan is to create a safety captain on site that leads your safety culture. Keep in mind that team members need a leader who oversees the program and shares the same safety culture. The safety captain must be experienced, trained and have earned the respect of team members on site.

The safety captain will have many roles:

Communicate with employees to monitor and enhance safety programming and increase workers’ knowledge;

Help workers inspire each other to learn more about safety concerns and the best practices associated with their jobs so they can protect each other from hazards;

Drive risk assessments so workers can know the hazards that they face and how to act upon them to protect themselves and their co-workers;

Schedule regular meetings and take minutes and notes at the meeting. While not an OSHA Standard, OSHA “strongly encourages” regular safety meetings be held.

To be successful, the safety captain should start by picking a quick win with a “low-hanging fruit” issue everyone can embrace and that can be easily achieved. Build and collaborate with all team members on an overall safety on site plan and then implement training. No amount of training can be enough.

Evaluate Site Risks
Safety Captains should organize team walks and talks to review the entire property and identify areas of concern in a JSA. They should also identify all concerns from their teams about how employees work and how customers interact with the marina. Finally, recognize hazard exposures and make a list to memorialize and plan for actions.

Assigning a safety captain to lead and then determining tasks are the biggest challenges and hardest steps your team will take on the road to a culture shift.

Read Part 2: Creating a Safety Culture at Your Marina – Recognizing Hazards and Planning Action Steps.