The Culture of Occupational Health and Safety

Organisations that have an Occupational Health and Safety culture in place perform more efficiently, improving the results of their processes, promoting employee health and satisfaction, guaranteeing a safe working environment, with a reduced level of accidents at work. Occupational health and safety culture is defined as a behavioural approach within organisations that affects the way their employees act and think about occupational health and safety, i.e. it considers occupational health and safety actions as a strategy used in decision-making in organisations. In order to carry out this work, a literature review and the author's experience on the subject were carried out. This research showed that organisations that implement an occupational health and safety culture achieve their objectives when they recognise that health and safety actions are treated as a value and not just a mere compliance with legal requirements.