When developing a safety culture, companies eventually reach a point where their accident rates stagnate, despite having implemented comprehensive safety management.
This stagnation is due to the fact that implementing a management system is only one step on the safety culture ladder: To further improve safety performance, the leap from rule-based, mechanical application of a system into the “hearts and minds” of employees must succeed. This leap requires the active involvement and participation of all employees from top management to the frontline. All employees must be engaged in the topic of safety so that they work safely—because they want to, not because they have to. Only in this way does safety become an integral part of daily work.
Corporate and Safety Culture
A corporate culture is described by values and behaviors; it is “the way we do things here.” The “why,” the purpose, is usually not known to the organization’s employees; much has evolved historically.
A company’s safety culture is the component that relates to occupational safety. It is reflected in beliefs and attitudes toward safety and influences employee behavior. An organization with a high safety culture creates an environment that enables and promotes safe work.
Companies are usually not aware of their own safety culture. Only over time do they engage with it and develop the desire to understand it. The
Hearts & Minds Toolkit
supports cultural change. It consists of a series of explanatory brochures, presentations, videos, and other supporting materials that help organizations
- understand which level of the safety culture ladder they are at,
- improve in relation to core topics, and
- engage employees at different organizational levels.
Each Hearts & Minds Tool focuses on a specific topic. The “Understand Your HSE Culture” tool is the starting instrument, identifies strengths, weaknesses, and improvement potential, and initiates the change process. All other tools are used where problems or improvement potential have been identified. The following tools are currently available:
| Tools for understanding one’s own culture and preparing employees for change: | What it is and when it can be used |
| Understand Your HSE Culture | WHAT: An instrument for determining the current position on the safety culture ladder. Identifies strengths, weaknesses, and improvement potential. WHEN: Serves to engage employees and initiate change processes. DURATION: 2-3 hours plus follow-up. |
| Understand Your Energy Culture | WHAT: Based on “Understand Your HSE Culture” and applied to improving energy management performance. WHEN: Serves to engage employees and initiate programs to improve energy management. DURATION: 2-3 hours plus follow-up. |
| Sustaining Change | WHAT: A general instrument for managing change and supporting improvement processes or organizational change programs. WHEN: For designing your own tools. DURATION: 1-2 hours. |
| Tools for improving understanding and management of hazards and risks: | What it is and when it can be used |
| Risk Assessment: Brought to Life | WHAT: Helps employees understand risks, makes them personal, and encourages action. WHEN: At any time to better manage risks. DURATION: 1 hour. |
| Increasing Situational Awareness: The Rule of Three | WHAT: Helps employees make better risk-based decisions and justify them. WHEN: When risks fall out of focus or there is a danger of complacency. Can be used at any time, especially during changes. DURATION: 5 minutes plus introduction. |
| Working Safely | WHAT: Intervention program that builds on and supports existing programs or can be implemented independently. WHEN: When safe work procedures are not being followed. DURATION: 8 hours total, several 1-hour time slots. |
| Excellent Driving Behavior | WHAT: A series of exercises to change the behavior of drivers and their supervisors. WHEN: When driving poses a significant occupational or personal risk. DURATION: 8 hours total, several 1-hour time slots. |
| Tool for improving requirements: Why are they not being followed? | What it is and when it can be used |
| Facilitating Compliance with Requirements | WHAT: Prevention of incidents due to non-compliance with requirements. Includes consequence management. WHEN: When requirements are not being followed or need to be improved. DURATION: Initially 2-3 hours, then 1 hour per topic. |
| Tool for improving leadership: | What it is and when it can be used |
| Improving Supervision | WHAT: Improvement of non-technical skills of operational leaders (operations managers, supervisors, shift leaders). WHEN: When the quality of supervision is identified as a (possible) cause of incidents. DURATION: 4-5 hours. |
| Tools for learning from incidents: | What it is and when it can be used |
| Learning from Incidents | WHAT: Supports discussion and learning process through a series of exercises that can be used at different organizational levels. WHEN: To analyze and improve processes and learning opportunities so that incidents do not recur. DURATION: 3-4 hours. |
| Measuring Learning | WHAT: Workshop with 6-12 participants to learn about and evaluate learning indicators. WHEN: For introducing organizational learning indicators. DURATION: 2 hours. |
| Reflective Learning Workshops | WHAT: Instruments for facilitating and conducting reflective learning workshops, including various example videos. WHEN: Engaging with an incident to understand it and apply it to one’s own situation. DURATION: 1 hour. |
Hearts Minds is not equivalent to Behavior Based Safety
Behavior Based Safety applies the findings from Applied Behavior Analysis to occupational safety. Safe behavior is made measurable and positively reinforced. Behavior Based Safety focuses on employee behavior to avoid “unsafe acts” and thus on the individual rather than the work environment.
With Hearts Minds, the work environment is in the foreground. The underlying philosophy states that the vast majority of unsafe acts are due to an imperfect work environment and ultimately to deficiencies in the management system. To improve safety performance, the focus is therefore on, among other things, management mindset, instructions requirements, and the physical work environment.
Good to know
Hearts Minds originated at the oil and gas company Shell and is based on a research program conducted in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. Thanks to a publication agreement between Shell and the UK-based Energy Institute, the Toolkit is also available outside the Shell Group. The Energy Institute offers trainer training and has a worldwide network of independent consultants who are happy to support implementation.
As a non-profit organization, the Energy Institute ensures the continuous further development of the Hearts Minds Toolkit by reinvesting the revenue from the sale of the Toolkit into further development.
Source: https://heartsandminds.energyinst.org/
Thank you! For the original photo to Jonathan Kemper on Unsplash.
