WHAT IS THE SAFETY CULTURE INDEX?
The Safety Culture Index (SCI) is a multi-category survey instrument designed to categorise individual perceptions, beliefs, experiences and behaviours concerning safety within an organisation. Survey information is then assessed against internal and external safety culture norms. The SCI is an adaptation of the Loughborough University Safety Climate Assessment which was developed in conjunction with the Off shore Safety Division of the Health Safety Executive, UK.
WHY MEASURE SAFETY CULTURE?
When looking to achieve improved safety performance it is necessary to consider the 'culture/climate'* that prevails at any given time within an organisation.
What is not known by many business leaders is which elements of culture they should focus on to address key safety challenges. Once we agree on what the issues are, we then need to be clear about where to start. The GSI Safety Culture Index helps organisation’s objectively assess strengths and weaknesses from a cultural perspective. This allows organisations to prioritise and target resources. To increase efficiency and return on investment the GSI Safety Culture Index benchmarks an organisation's cultural status against high-performance cultures to determine the culture gap.
*WHAT IS SAFETY CULTURE?
Safety culture can be viewed as a subset of the overall culture of the organisation. Often described as shared values or beliefs, which characterise safety within the organisation. It has been defined as:
‘the product of individual and group values, attitudes and beliefs, competencies and patterns of behaviour that determine the commitment to, and the style and proficiency of, an organisation’s health and safety management’.
This definition relates safety culture to personal (and work group) attitudes, thoughts and behaviours. These reflect the style of the work organisation, including its approach to safety management. Safety culture thus has two dominant, and interrelated, components:
1. The framework determined by organisational policy, procedures and management actions (what the organisation is); and
2. The collective individual and work group responses (their values, beliefs and behaviours).