Complacency: Height safety culture’s silent killer (USA)

Complacency: Height safety culture’s silent killer

Building an effective fall safety program is a lot like baking a cake. You can have the best ingredients: equipment, processes, regulations. But if you don't mix them into one cohesive system, the whole thing falls flat.

In this episode of The Height Safety Standard, host Mel Moss sits down with Andre Pelland (VP of Technical Operations) and Angel Jimenez (Business Development Manager) to dig into the real enemy of safety programs: complacency.

Watch or listen to the full episode

Safety culture breaks down at the top, not the job site

Andre Pelland describes complacency as a systemic failure, not an individual one:

"It takes an entire system to make sure complacency isn't running rampant in your organization."

The outcome of disengaged leadership on the ground level takes shape in different scenarios with one common thread: safety was assumed. For example: a worker grabs the same tool they've always used, on a job they've always done, without asking if it's right for this setup. Andre calls it the "same old tool for a new job" problem, a gap in site assessment, not laziness. The employee wasn’t set up for success with the right processes, checklists, or documentation to correctly assess the situation.

The consequences can range from a citation to a site fatality.

Angel Jimenez sees the same dynamic play out from a cultural angle.

Warning signs Angel watches for:

· Toolbox talks treated as a box to check

· Near-misses going unreported out of fear

· Equipment inspections shrinking from a thorough review to a quick glance

· Supervisors who don’t walk the site themselves or model safe behavior they expect from others

The root cause? Leadership that talks safety but doesn't walk it. As Angel puts it: "Complacency is tough to fight because it's not just a bad habit. It's how people think." Our brains are wired for efficiency. We do something once, nothing bad happens, so we do it again. And again. It becomes muscle memory, and somewhere along the way, we stop thinking about it at all.

Building a height safety culture that prevents complacency

For safety managers worried that their team might be drifting, Andre and Angel offered one simple yet powerful piece of advice: stop waiting for a catalyst and start treating safety like any other management system with quantifiable metrics to ensure continuous improvement.

A strong height safety compliance program removes the complacent behaviors that allow incompatible applications to go unreviewed or unconsidered. Initially, this might read as abstract direction, but when supported by an actionable framework, implementation becomes intuitive.

Three steps to build safety into every procedure

1. Mandate thorough site assessments before every task

2. Walk the site regularly with both internal staff and outside experts

3. Build a non-conformance process that includes root cause analysis and follow-through on corrective actions

None of this works without leadership that takes the “boring” steps seriously. Height safety depends on consistent, diligent follow-through.

On the equipment side, apply risk-based inspection schedules rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. Different components wear differently, so focus on the parts most susceptible to UV damage, general wear and failure, and the distinct aging patterns of webbing versus structural hardware. Regular inspections build a habit: workers start checking automatically whether equipment matches the job at hand, and safety becomes second nature rather than a separate step. Moving to detail-oriented, risk-based schedules also closes the gaps that open-ended calendars tend to leave behind, ensuring every component gets checked at the cadence it actually needs.

Let’s talk regulation and compliance

Regulation and compliance work the same way: assign people to track OSHA, ANSI, and CSA updates, and bake compliance into your procedures. When employees help shape safety culture, they take ownership and raise the standard instead of just following it.

Real behavioral change is the goal.