Hudson’s Safety Culture Ladder – What rung is your organisation on?

Hudson’s Safety Culture Ladder – What rung is your organisation on?

Over the past few weeks as part of my role with JLT, I’ve been conducting OHS forums with OHS, Risk and HR professionals from the Victorian local government sector. While the main focus of the forums has been on project management and change management and our planned approach to implementing a consistent approach to OHS management across the sector, we’ve also discussed the topic of safety culture.

Patrick Hudson; a leader on safety culture and performance, believes that all workplace accidents are attributed to workplace culture. In the past we’ve spent so much time on OHS technology, engineering and regulation, and also with the establishment of safety management systems. But what are we doing about culture? What are we doing about making safety about people?

I’m going to write some articles around this, but for now I want to ask some questions. When I asked the attendees of our forums where they thought their organisations were sitting on Hudson’s Ladder, I was surprised to see the honesty in their responses. It was quite refreshing.

Now I’d like to ask business leaders; where do you think your organisation sits on Hudson’s Ladder? Why do you think you belong there; do you have evidence to support it?

I’ve found when I’ve asked for evidence to support a person’s perception of their organisation’s position on the ladder, quite often are unable to provide it and end up moving themselves further down the ladder.

If you’re saying that you’re near the top, at ‘PROACTIVE – Safety leadership & values drive continuous improvement’, what are the things you’re doing as a leader to proactively drive safety. Be honest.

If you think you’re at ‘CALCULATIVE – We have systems in place to manage all hazards‘, what systems do you have in place? Who is responsible for them; you or the safety team? If you’ve outsourced responsibility to the safety team then you don’t really have a system at all.

So with that in mind, do you truly believe that you’re as high up the ladder as you think? Have you been overly optimistic, and had to climb back down the ladder when you couldn’t find the evidence to support your position. Are you happy with where you’re sitting? If you originally thought you were higher up the ladder, to me that tells me that’s where you’d like to be. If that’s you, there is no need to answer. Just follow my future blogs and vlogs and find out how you can help your team or organisation climb the ladder.