How do you evaluate and benchmark your safety culture and leadership?

1 Assess your safety climate

Safety climate is the perception and attitude of your employees towards safety at a given point in time. It reflects how they feel about the safety policies, procedures, practices, and communication in your organization. You can assess your safety climate by conducting surveys, interviews, focus groups, or observations. These methods can help you identify the strengths and weaknesses of your safety culture and leadership, as well as the gaps and opportunities for improvement.

2 Analyze your safety performance

Safety performance is the outcome of your safety culture and leadership. It shows how well you prevent and manage hazards, incidents, injuries, and illnesses. You can analyze your safety performance by collecting and reviewing data on leading and lagging indicators . Leading indicators are proactive measures that predict and prevent safety problems, such as training, audits, inspections, or near misses. Lagging indicators are reactive measures that record and report safety problems, such as accidents, injuries, or fatalities.

3 Compare your safety maturity

Safety maturity is the level of development and integration of your safety culture and leadership. It indicates how much you value, prioritize, and invest in safety as a core part of your business. You can compare your safety maturity by using frameworks, models, or standards that describe the different stages or dimensions of safety excellence. For example, you can use the Safety Culture Maturity Model, the Safety Leadership Model, or the ISO 45001 standard to benchmark your safety maturity against best practices or industry norms.

4 Implement your safety improvement plan

Safety improvement plan is the action plan that you develop and execute to enhance your safety culture and leadership. It outlines the specific goals, objectives, strategies, and activities that you will implement to address the issues and gaps that you identified in your evaluation and benchmarking. You can implement your safety improvement plan by following the SMART criteria: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. You should also monitor and evaluate your progress and results regularly.

5 Engage your safety stakeholders

Safety stakeholders are the people who are affected by or can affect your safety culture and leadership. They include your employees, managers, leaders, customers, suppliers, regulators, and others. You can engage your safety stakeholders by involving them in your safety evaluation and improvement process. You can solicit their feedback, input, ideas, and suggestions. You can also communicate your vision, values, expectations, and achievements. You can also recognize and reward their contributions and performance.

6 Learn from your safety experience

Safety experience is the knowledge and skills that you gain from your safety culture and leadership. It helps you to improve your safety competence and confidence. You can learn from your safety experience by reflecting on your successes and failures, challenges and opportunities, lessons and best practices. You can also learn from the safety experience of others by networking, collaborating, mentoring, or coaching. You can also access various resources, such as books, articles, podcasts, webinars, or courses.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?