Description/Evaluation of a Safety Culture

How to evaluate operational occupational safety and health? How can we measure the level of development of a safety culture? How can you objectively discuss what next step will effectively move an organization forward in occupational safety and health?

Who has not experienced this before? You are already very active, you have retrofitted the machinery with safety equipment, you invest in various training courses, but still the accident rates do not move significantly downwards, they remain on a plateau or even increase.

In this case, an evaluation of the current safety culture can be helpful. Questionnaires or a safety culture assessment are often used for this purpose.

The Pro-Safety Index includes several ways to evaluate/assess the current safety culture based on the Pro-Safety Culture House:

1. Safety Culture Assessment by an Expert: Through interviews and field tours, the current safety culture is analyzed and assessed across all hierarchical levels using an assessment matrix. A detailed report and moderated management workshops lead to subsequent action planning.

2. Partnership-based Safety Culture Evaluation: The current status of the safety culture is determined by the company's own management team on the basis of field tours and workshops. A safety culture expert facilitates the workshops. The organization will also receive a report and a management-workshop to create an action plan. The advantage of this approach is, of course, that the result has a high level of acceptance due to the organization's own conscious participation.

3. Safety-Culture-Preparedness-Score, this is a low-threshold offer for self-assessment of an organization's actual safety culture situation instead of higher-priced assessments or evaluations.

   The basics of occupational health and safety are discussed using 57 questions on 12 topic blocks as a self-assessment. On the basis of an online survey, the organization receives a detailed statement on the extent to which the basis of the Pro-Safety-Culture-House is fulfilled and thus the basic topics in occupational safety are lived in everyday work life. Following a report, any gaps can be closed so that the organization is prepared for the next steps towards a further safety culture development.

4. Pro-Safety-Maturity-Score (still in development): Building on the “Safety Culture Preparedness Score”, a corresponding maturity score follows, which, when processed regularly (annually), provides the organization with information on the current status of safety culture development as well as potential next steps. The Safety-Culture-Maturity-Score is currently still under construction.

5. Periodic review of operational prevention work using suitable leading indicators that evaluate occupational health and safety from a variety of perspectives. Usually, occupational safety in many companies is still assessed on the basis of accident rates and absenteeism rates. With suitable leading indicators, operational occupational health and safety can be better and regularly evaluated. The management team is given a new leadership variable, and occupational safety thus becomes an equally VALUED company VALUE.

For all options under items 1-3, it is evaluated and identified whether and which basic elements are missing according to the Pro-Safety-Culture-House. This is important because the missing elements could represent decisive hurdles in subsequent cultural development measures or even lead to the failure of these development measures.

All of the options shown help companies to assess the current status of their safety culture at any time and to develop suitable next steps.

The fifth method with leading indicators is recommended for more advanced companies and helps the respective organizational units to manage occupational safety with objective and SMART metrics.