To perform a safety culture survey, a business does not need to spend tens of thousands of dollars on some external consulting company. Here are just seven (7) questions that need to be asked and discussed at the highest levels of the organization.
Get ready, as these will generate a lot of emotions as senior management looks into the mirror of the culture they have created and cultivated.
- Has the organization developed, with its staff, a shared vision that achieves clearity about its expectations and goals that will maintain safety and seek opportunities for improvement?
- Most importantly, can staff remember and relate to the key points?
- Are senior staff seen to be fulfilling these expectations themselves? For example, is safety the first item on the agenda at their meetings?
- Do they engage employees in the employee working environment by wearing appropriate personal protective equipment?
- Are managers seen to be devoting time and resources to safety, for example, spending a substantial proportion of their time looking specifically at the level of safety actually being achieved, and to challenging and praising different practices?
- Have they taken the time to become sufficiently competent in safety issues?
- When difficulties arise, are expectations still fulfilled? For example, if maintenance is running behind schedule, are procedures still used effectively with no tendency to take shortcuts?
