Introduction to Fire Safety Management

4.3.3 Staff 
turnover
Again, staff turnover is often quoted as a good indica-
tor of organisational culture, but again caution must be 
exercised when drawing inferences about the culture 
in a particular organisation. In general it is thought that 
the more positive a safety culture in an organisation the 
greater the feelings of loyalty among the staff and there-
fore the less the turnover. There are, however, a number 
of factors that affect staff turnover that have little rela-
tionship with safety culture, including:
➤
Industry 
norms
➤
Remuneration packages of competitors
➤
Life/work balance issues for the individual
➤
Personal career aspirations.
4.3.4 Compliance with safety rules
An examination of the degree to which safety rules are 
applied or breached at work gives a good indication of 
the effectiveness of the safety culture. This is because 
almost all factors that affect the implementation of 
safety rules are in the direct control of the management. 
Therefore it is possible to draw reasonable inferences 
from an analysis of breaches of safety rules.
With a positive safety culture at work, individuals will 
be aware of the rules, have suffi cient physical resources, 
time and competence to apply them and be motivated 
to do so.
Active monitoring systems (see Chapter 6) will enable 
instances of breaches in safety rules. Particularly effective 
formal active monitoring systems include safety tours, 
inspections and workplace audits. Less formal but none 
the less relevant are those occasions when observing 
behaviour in the workplace occurs as a result of visiting 
the workplace for other reasons, for example quality 
control or welfare.
Fire doors wedged open, bad housekeeping and 
breaches of security arrangements that are identifi ed 
during active monitoring will provide a good indication 
that routine fi re safety management is poor.