Safety Without an ISO

While fire services have traditionally been spared the impact of budget cuts, a new “normal” with respect to local, state, national and global economic conditions has changed the way fire agencies are viewed. Nowadays, many jurisdictions facing critical fiscal decisions find themselves reconsidering the value of so-called “non-essential” positions, including fire department positions. The position of department safety officer is one that can get caught in the crosshairs of budget reductions or temporary (or permanent) reassignment. The question for an organization that has invested time and resources into building a safety program: How does safety remain a priority when this position does not exist? The answer may lie in an understanding of the organization’s “safety climate” versus the organization’s “safety culture.”

Climate vs. Culture
Mearns (1999) suggests that a safety climate is a situation linked to thoughts, feelings and behaviors. It is temporal, subjective and open to manipulation by people with power and influence in an organization. A safety culture is an evolved context, rooted in history, collectively held and sufficiently complex to resist manipulation.

In a fire department, the difference between a safety climate and culture is clearly demonstrated when there is no safety officer present. A safety climate will result in responders operating within the incident management systems, utilizing their personal protective gear and maintaining team integrity only while a supervisor or safety officer is present. A safety culture will result in individuals doing these things not because the safety officer is present, but because it is a core personal belief and the way things are done in the organization. Regardless of the difference between a safety climate and safety culture, what doesn’t change is the organizational responsibility to foster a safe and healthy environment.

How to Maintain Safety
Should the chief find him- or herself without a full-time safety officer–or simply unable to fill the position at an incident–there are still ways to maintain the safety of the organization or situation. One option is to reinforce the safety climate. This will require strong policies and accountability for safety at every level. Individuals need to be made aware of safety policies and practices, and they need to be trained and evaluated on their ability to function accordingly. This is particularly important for first-line supervisors whose most important role is the safety, health and survival of those assigned to their work teams.

A second option is to depend on the strength of the safety culture. In situations with established safety cultures, the formality of monitoring the system can be replaced with the efforts to reinforce existing universal beliefs and actions of the individual in the culture.
 
Another option involves changing the way business is done all together. If the safety officer is so integral to the safety of a situation that their absence will likely cause serious injury or death, the fire chief must be willing to make the decision to simply not take the action in question. This may require the suspension of programs, the modification of response or activity patterns, or other significant changes in the way work is done. This is perhaps the most difficult approach in that it requires the chief to be prepared to withstand the resistance and potential negative reactions from those more committed to action than to safety.

A Final Word
Ultimately, the responsibility to adhere to safe practices is an individual one that exists outside the context of the safety officer position. Each individual has a responsibility first for their own safety, then for that of their partners, work groups and organizational elements. Fire chiefs are responsible for ensuring the safety, health and survival of members of the organization and should consider a variety of options for maintaining safety at incidents and in the organization as a whole, even when the assignment of a safety officer is not an option.

Reference
Mearns K. Assessing the state of organizational safety–culture or climate? Current Psychology. 1999;18(1):5.