From Regulatory Compliance to Safety Excellence

From Regulatory Compliance to Safety Excellence

The difference between regulatory compliance and safety excellence is vast with far-reaching implications.

Focusing on regulatory compliance sets you and your organization’s safety goals as the minimum required by law, whereas focusing on EHS excellence allows you to set goals that meet that baseline and exceed it.

 

Why Strive for Safety Excellence?

Setting focus on safety excellence better addresses the causes of incidents, generates the engagement required for continued improvement, and ultimately keeps more people safe.

It is for this reason the Hub guide Ideas to Improve Safety in the Workplace begins with “Go Beyond Compliance” as its first concept. Emphasizing what safety can do to improve work in an organization, the benefits that give it value, is a prerequisite for implementing the principles that follow this concept: achieving leadership buy-in, meeting the needs of all employees, and building a culture of safety.

“There is a big difference between being compliant and being safe,” reiterates Tyler Payne, SMP, CHST, STS, CIT in the webinar Advancing a Safety Culture & Safety Leadership, adding that “If we treat safety as just a checklist on top of a checklist… we’re taking the very foundation we need out from beneath us.”

This is because engagement from leadership and employees is necessary if an organization is going to improve safety. As Tim Page-Bottorff, CSP, CIT explains while discussing continuous improvement in Always Learning, Never Done, frequent and open communication with management and frontline workers provides safety professionals with important information they need, knowledge about work processes that impact safety, and potential partners in a safety culture that aligns work procedures and the safety program.

 

Engaging Management

“The success of your safety department pivots on the acceptance of management,” Payne says in his webinar. Why is management and other leaders’ buy-in important, and how do you get it?

Having leadership engaged in safety is important in building trust and getting reliable information on potential hazards, near misses, and incidents. It also ensures that leaders are setting expectations and demonstrating safe procedures through their actions, not only in safety training but also in day-to-day practice. Decision-makers who value safety are more likely provide the safety program the resources it needs to be effective.

Gaining leadership buy-in begins with building understanding. “Understanding the work made it easier for me to manage safety with the folks who are doing the work because I understood what they were trying to accomplish,” explains Jason Townsell, CSP, Vice President of Environmental Health and Safety at Paramount Studios in the first episode of the Safety on Location podcast. “You communicate best when you meet people where they're at. So I learned how to meet them where they're at and get them to where they needed to be.”

Meeting the safety needs of an organization is tied to building a shared understanding of the benefits safety can provide for the organization’s various departments. Engaging leadership starts with working together to determine those benefits. This process is described in detail in the eBook How to Build Your Safety Team. Once the value of safety is understood, safety professionals can translate the benefits they identify into formal goals and start to achieve those goals by meeting the organization’s safety needs.

As Townsell explains, “Understanding what they're trying to get done, [and] integrating what I would like to get done with that so that we all go along the path together, is how stuff gets done.”

 

Engaging Frontline Workers

It is just as important that frontline workers value safety. “If we actually want to be safe, we need to empower employees,” says Payne. “If all we’re focused on is being compliant, then that is all they’ll be focused on.” A compliance focus can result in employees viewing safety precautions as a chore only to be done when compelled.

“You have to provide the purpose,” says Payne. “This is why we do what we do.”

When conducting site walkthroughs, don’t limit your activity to your inspection checklist—talk with those doing the work! Ask them about the conditions of equipment, their work areas, and safety concerns. Ask them for input about safety procedures and how those benefit or could better benefit them.

Frequent surveys and a well-communicated and clear incident reporting process that allows employees to report accidents, near misses, or unsafe conditions they encounter are other important tools that can support safety improvement. Offering anonymity in surveys can further encourage team members to provide honest feedback and raise concerns they might not feel comfortable sharing otherwise. When issues are reported, follow up.

Safety training also provides the opportunity to engage the team while they are focused on hazard identification and safe work practices. Effective training sessions include interactive elements and focus on highlighting what is done right.

Team members’ engagement during walkthroughs, assistance in hazard identification or incident reporting, and participation during training are a few of the important elements on which a positive safety culture is built.

 

Achieving Safety Excellence

In addition to the various methods listed in the last section, the establishment of safety committees and their regular meetings are another important, practical method of creating and maintaining a positive safety culture. Safety committees provide another avenue for engagement by bringing together representatives from different departments or work areas to discuss safety-related matters and collaborate on solutions.

Use these methods to continue identifying the benefits of safety, create goals, and engage your team in the process of realizing them.

Achieving safety excellence requires a fundamental shift in mindset—from simply meeting regulatory requirements to building a culture where safety is actively lived, valued, and continuously improved. Compliance may check the boxes, but it does not drive the level of engagement, communication, and leadership alignment necessary to truly protect workers and create a thriving work environment.

By focusing on excellence, organizations empower both leadership and frontline workers to take ownership of safety, building trust, collaboration, and innovation in safety practices. From leadership buy-in to frontline engagement and active safety committees, each element contributes to a comprehensive, proactive approach that not only prevents incidents but also enhances operational efficiency and morale.

Ultimately, safety excellence is not a destination but an ongoing commitment—a shared journey that transforms safety from a legal obligation into a core organizational value.

 

Tags: Workplace Safety Safety Excellence EHS Safety Compliance Safety Culture Core Values Safety Program

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