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Abstract
Safety culture has been shown to influence the accident and injury rate in the workplace, with more positive safety cultures leading to lower rates of accidents and injuries. Given this relationship, identifying methods to improve a company's safety culture is of special interest to both ergonomists and safety professionals. In this study, we explore the use of safety posters to influence perceived safety culture. A virtual environment was developed to simulate a warehouse environment with varying levels of signage. A within-subjects design was used (n=40), with signage varying across four levels (no signage, safety signs, safety posters, both safety signs and safety posters). Participants completed surveys after each scenario, with questions measuring priority of safety, safety awareness, personal perception of safety, perception of co worker safety, and safety culture. Results showed a statistically significant difference for each measure, based on varying levels of signage. The presence of safety posters significantly increased participant ratings of safety culture. This study presents evidence that incorporating safety posters in the workplace is a low-cost and low-effort mechanism to positively influence safety culture.
Keywords
safety culture, virtual reality (VR), poster campaign, safety survey
1. Introduction
Industrial sites are one of the many environments where safety is critical for the employees' well-being. In both 2017 and 2018 there were 2.8 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses within private industry employee reports [1]. Employees are one of a company's most critical assets, so reducing workplace injuries and keeping them safe is important. To ensure employee safety, companies may implement safety programs, try new management styles, or change other factors within their workplace like safety management systems and safety culture.
In 2002, Wiegmann researched several perceptions of the term "safety culture" and developed a hybrid definition: "Safety culture is the enduring value and priority placed on worker and public safety by everyone in... an organization." [2]. Essentially, safety culture is the resolve of an organization to practice safe actions. Improving the level of safety culture within a company can effectively improve safety performance indicators and reduce workplace accidents [3]. The strength of safety culture has both a direct and indirect impact on safety management systems and can affect the safety performance of the company [4]. A safety management system within a...