understanding and measuring safety culture€¦ · -hazard identification-work-site...

Dave Fennell Safety Inc.

Understanding and MeasuringSafety Culture

Assembly of Manitoba Safety Professionals

January 21st 2020

Dave FennellDirector, Dave Fennell Safety Inc.


1. What is ‘Safety Culture’?

2. What does a positive safety culture look like?

3. How can we quantify this aspect of safety?

4. How can we influence this important part of safety?

Safety Culture


Assembly of Manitoba Safety Professionals views on culture …

Safety culture is …A) The ‘feel’ or ‘feeling’ of safety

B) What the workers say about safety

C) What management believes about safety

D) The alignment of beliefs about safety between management and workers


A) The ‘feel’ of safety in an organization

Does it feel safe here?

Comfortable, good, harm free

or

Sense of risk, discomfort, doom


Dr. Dan Peterson –Forefather of Safety Perception Surveys

• Researched the correlation between specific activities and safety results

• Developed a set of 75 questions (+25 optional) that should be asked and measured

• Defined 20 specific categories of safety that can provide insights into culture

• Demonstrated that the ‘feel’ and intuition could be quantified.


B) What the workers say about safety

Ask them directly:

1. Individual interviews

2. Focus groups

3. Anonymous survey


C) What management believes about safety

Ask them directly:

1. Individual interviews

2. Anonymous survey

3. Monitor their actions – what do they do in safety


D) The alignment of beliefs about safety between management and workers

Management beliefs

Workers beliefs

Strong Safety Culture

Management beliefs

Workers beliefs

Weak Culture


Dr. Dan Petersen made the point that Safety culture is all of these …• The ‘feel’ or ‘feeling’ of safety

• What the workers say about safety

• What management believes about safety

• The alignment of beliefs about safety between management and workers

… and a lot more!


Defining Safety Culture

Safety Culture is the cumulative effective of

the observed behavioural regularities, group

norms, espoused values, formal philosophies,

‘rules of the game’, habits of thinking, shared

meanings, shared values and root metaphors.

Hofstede 1997

“The Way We Do Things Around Here”


What makes up Safety Culture?Dan Petersen’s categories in 1989:

Quality of Supervision Safety ProceduresNew Workers Concerns for Safety Incident Investigations Recognition for SafetyAttitude Toward Safety Hazard CorrectionCommunications Alcohol and Drug Prog. Goals for Safety Safety ClimateDiscipline InspectionsAwareness Programs Employee TrainingInvolvement in Safety Supervisor TrainingSupport for Safety Management Credibility

Optional: Stress


Assembly of Manitoba Safety Professionals views on…

Quality of SupervisionTrue or False: Supervisors in my organization understand what they are accountable for in safety.

True or False: Supervisors in my organization get adequate training on safety matters.


Management Systems Complianceand Effectiveness:- Perception Surveys- Assessments, Audits

Activities:- Hazard Identification- Work-site Inspections- Behaviour Observations- Near-miss Reporting- Pre-job Planning

Owner/President

Managers Supervisors Workers

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ates

Act

ion

Accountability Model

Results:- Safety Record- Statistics- Benchmarks


Supervisor Safety Competency

What do Supervisors need to know about safety?

What must Supervisors be able to do on safety?


Fundamentals of Safety Managing Risk Tolerance

Workforce Motivation Incident Management

Human Factors Psychological Safety

Workforce Safety Competence Pre-Job Safety Planning

Managing Safety Performance IssuesProactive Reporting and Key Performance Indicators

Communications and Interfaces Safety Meetings

Managing New Workers Inspections and Attests

Physical Risk Management Off the Job Safety

Fundamentals of Safety for Supervisors and Managers

From the ExxonMobil Fundamentals of Safety (EMFOS) Program


Assembly of Manitoba Safety Professionals views on…

What additional topic should be included in a safety culture survey in 2020?

A) Risk Tolerance

B) Fatigue

C) Violence/Harassment

D) Regulatory Compliance

E) Psychological Safety


Considerations before doing aSafety Perception Survey

Are you prepared to ask the difficult questions?

Is your management ready for the answers?

Is your company committed to acting on the results?


The Difficult Questions

True or False: The risks involved are sometimes overlooked to get the job done.



True or False: Managers and Supervisors in my company are more concerned about their safety record than about incident prevention.

"I don’t want any of my

people being hurt”

Communicate Values

”I won’t ever put a worker at risk for the sake of profit or productivity”

- Develop competency on incident management

- Communicate vision and goals on safety with workers, save the discussion on the statistics for behind closed doors.



True or False: Employees who are using drugs or alcohol on the job site are able to work without being detected.

- Assess the company drug, alcohol and impairment program.

- Provide frontline supervisors with additional training on A&D issues.

- Attend SSM workshops over the next 2 days.

True or False: The use of drugs or alcohol increases the risk of incidents


The Formal Safety Perception Survey

Context and Promotion :Set the stage for the survey with a formal communication from management

• Why are we doing this survey

• Management’s commitment to the process

• What we need from the workers



Extent and Breadth:Survey and analyze as a single entity or break down into work areas

• Minimum of 50 workers

• At least 3 supervisors per assessible unit

• Maintain anonymity



Job Functions:3 Essential Categories

• Management

• Supervisors

• Workers

2 Optional Categories

• Contractor

• Subcontractor



The Survey:Hard copy or on-line

• Maximize participation

• Make it easy to do

• Statistical minimum rate of return – 30%

• Preferred minimum rate of return – 51%


Analyzing Survey Results

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Investigations Mngt Credibility A&D New Workers

Survey Results

Mngt Supervisors Workers


Action Plans and Improvement Strategies

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Inv.

Insp. HID

Goals

Aware CredQ of

S

Involv

eClim Proc

Suppo

rtRec

gTra

inDisc Risk A&D

New W

orkers

Survey Results

Mngt Supervisors Workers


A Simpler Survey to Get You Started



Follow up and Action Plans:• Formal communication from management acknowledging

the input

• Steering committee or champion for managing and stewarding the actions

• Focus groups for developing actions if needed

• Follow up survey ‘Did our actions work?’ (3 to 5 years)


Resources and Expertise for Conducting Safety Perception Surveys

The Survey Tool1. Data Gather2. Report Generation3. Analytical Capability

The Analysis Expertise1. In House Safety Professional2. Safety Consultant3. Safety Survey Specialist

The Action Plans1. In House Safety Professional2. Management Champion


Safety Culture

1. Safety culture is a critical element of safety

2. Ask questions to understand your culture

3. Use a safety perception survey to measure culture

4. Continue to use your safety expertise and intuition


Understanding Safety Culture

Dave FennellDirector, Dave Fennell Safety Inc.

[email protected] .

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