Safety culture analysis
An effective safety culture is vital for the successful safety management of complex sociotechnical systems such as those operated by many of our customers. Human Engineering has developed a wide variety of safety culture evaluation tools.
Human Engineering’s Safety Culture Toolkit was originally developed on behalf of the HMRI to enable Inspectors to assess how well rolling stock and freight operating companies were meeting the recommendations of the Cullen Inquiry into the train accident at Ladbroke Grove. This produced a software based technique that relies purely on measurable, objective evidence points and avoids the need to depend on subjective assessment. The evidence points are related to the following six key indicators known to be vital for an effective safety culture:
Communication
Personnel Participation
Learning
Organisation
Just Culture (Trust)
Safety Priority
The Toolkit evaluates an organisation’s safety culture with respect to these behavioural indicators. The application involves conducting a ‘vertical slice’ sample of interviews with staff. The interview questions involve exploring a set of defined, safety critical operating scenarios. The results provide a set of evaluative data along with recommendations for improvement.
Since the development of the original Safety Culture Toolkit, the core methodology has been adapted for use within all organisations and now represents a versatile assessment instrument that can be applied to a wide range of organisation types.