More and more attention for safer working: 1000th organization receives Safety Culture Ladder certificate

On March 10, 2022, the Safety Culture Ladder (SCL) certificate was issued to the 1000th organization that qualified for the SCL. A Safety Culture Ladder certificate maps the safety awareness of employees and managers. Culture is a difficult concept to “measure”. Nevertheless, the audit process for the Safety Culture Ladder provides insight into the safety culture of an organization and makes it clear what can be improved.

The aim of SCL is to test attitude and behavior in all layers of an organization when it comes to health and safety. The assessment method for measuring safety awareness and consciously acting safely in companies consists of 5 ladder steps. In short, reaching ladder step 1 means that the company is acting very reactively. Nothing is done until an accident or something serious has happened. Reaching ladder step 5 means working proactively across the company and with the entire industry to work safer and healthier.

1000th organization

The certificate was awarded by Normec Certification to Contracting and transport company ‘Roel van der Stoel B.V.’ On this occasion, a festive moment was added at Normec Certification. Jeannette Hofman-Züter, project leader of the Safety Culture Ladder at NEN, brought cake and handed a bouquet of flowers to Arjen Werkmeester, commercial director of Normec Certification.

The Safety Culture Ladder was once devised by ProRail. When more and more other companies became interested in the system, ProRail looked for an independent organization to manage the Safety Culture Ladder so that other companies could use it. NEN was chosen. Since the transfer to NEN, there are now 1000 companies that have qualified for the SCL, with the largest growth taking place in 2021: from 300 to 1000 organizations. This growth is due to the adoption of the SCL by the Governance Code for Safety in Construction (GCVB). From 1 January 2022, companies who have signed the GCVB will include safety awareness as an obligation in tenders and contracts. This joint agreement is called: Safety in Procurement (ViA). The intent is that thousands of companies in the construction sector will work more safely by focusing on safety culture and behaviour.

There are different types of SCL products, which differ in audit severity. The SCL has so far been widely used in the energy, offshore and construction sectors in Europe and more and more countries outside of Europe.