Employers are obliged to ensure safe working conditions. The Safety Culture Ladder can contribute to this. But how do you approach its implementation? How do you promote (safety) awareness, commitment and the right attitude and behaviour? Ron van Vuuren of Eneco explains.
The Safety Culture Ladder is a safety culture. The scheme focuses on integral safety and health, so you can apply it to all safety issues such as psychosocial safety, physical safety but also cybersecurity. The scheme focuses primarily on attitude and behaviour and also includes some more organisational issues, which are prerequisites for a good safety culture.'
Consciousness
Ron van Vuuren is responsible at Eneco for introducing the SCL, which the company has been working with for four years. Creating awareness within the organisation is an important starting point if you want to work with the SCL. 'It is good if your staff actively engage with real-life cases and discuss dilemmas. So take issues on the shop floor as a starting point for a conversation about safety. But there are also games on the market that initiate the conversation about safety in a more playful way, and we at Eneco also use podcasts on safety topics to get staff more involved.'
Management commitment
SCL stands or falls with management commitment. If there is no sense of urgency in that layer then it is not going to work. While the SCL is not introduced top down, it starts with the support of management. This way, the thinking can slowly seep through all layers of the organisation. Don't be afraid of doing something wrong; the SCL is a road, not a dot on the map.
Training and education
The SCL does not contain a catalogue of measures that together ensure a safe workplace. This means that providing the right training needs extra attention. 'As an organisation, look at what you need, what you want to improve and find the right training to go with it. NEN provides training sessions Safety Culture Ladder that fit all kinds of aspects of the SCL. On NEN's website, you can find all kinds of training courses for the 'Safety Culture Ladder'. According to Van Vuuren, SCL training courses are also truly customised. It also depends entirely on the sector in which you are active which training suits you best. Look at it carefully and make the right choice.'
