Starting a process of behavioural safety implementation: Assessing culture and safety climate

This paper presents data raised through a practical research taken in course to gather information on how the employees of a big company in the state of Paran perceived the aspects related to safety environment and safety culture. Both tools for collecting quantitative (research on safety environment) and qualitative data (focal groups) were used. It was elaborated a form containing seven evaluation factors (trainings, leadership participation, safe behavior, security organization, the company's encouragement to participate on safety actions, work organization and job satisfaction), totalizing forty-eight affirmative questions. Three focal groups were organized together with the factory's leaderships, in a total of twenty-seven people. The results were presented at a group discussion with the company's professionals in order to define the most critical and urgent measures to be taken. Some improvement suggestions and a plan of action with priority definitions (urgent, critical and of attention) for each one of the risen points were then presented. Some of the points in need of intervention were: training for the leaderships to improve the teams' management, training at the work stations on dangers and risks to health and security, definition of roles and responsibilities and elimination of risk factors.