The role of feedback in safety culture
Safety at work is never just a matter of rules and procedures, but is directly influenced by organisational culture, everyday behaviour and interpersonal relationships. These three elements have a powerful - though often underestimated - element in common: feedback.
This set of observations, suggestions and recognitions is a powerful tool to reinforce learning, safe behaviour, prevent accidents, improve performance and generally increase the well-being of workers.
The term clearly identifies its function: the translation from English, in fact, sounds like “feeding back”. Feedback should therefore be information that comes back to us, capable of enriching and orienting us towards improvement, and not a synonym for criticism, or even reproach. After all, one of its fundamental characteristics is that it never refers to the person and his “being”, but only to his behaviour.
Indeed, feedback, when well structured and used correctly, also functions as recognition, encouragement, exchange of ideas and dialogue, helping to create a virtuous circle: it raises awareness, enhances commitment and promotes profound cultural change. And it is precisely through these exchanges that safe behaviour is reinforced, performance is improved and a climate of trust is created.
