A proactive prevention culture

What is a prevention culture?

A prevention culture comprises the attitude, values, (implicit) assumptions, perceptions and habit of the members of an organization with regard to risks for safety, health and wellbeing at work. A prevention culture is always an aspect of the organizational culture (elaborated upon Zwetsloot & Dijkman, 2010).

Prevention culture is associated with the collective habits and behaviours in an organization, relevant for safety, health and wellbeing at work. A prevention culture is a complex concept that comprises several layers and (behavioural)aspects.

When is a prevention culture proactive?

• There is a visible or noticeable commitment of both senior management and the overwhelming majority of employees to actively promote safety, health and wellbeing at work.
• There is a lot of attention for safety, health and wellbeing in the phases of planning, design and procurement.  
•  There is active anticipation of possible risks through alertness on early warnings and adequate responses to them.
• There is individual but above all collective learning from unplanned events (incidents, errors, deviations)
• The organization learns form experiences of other organizations, both in the own sector and beyond

It (usually) takes several years to develop a proactive prevention culture