Demonstrable (senior and line) management commitment to health and safety
Visible (senior and line) management commitment, leadership and involvement in improving health and safety performance is vital for building a positive safety culture. The interest in, and priority placed on, safety by management needs to be ‘felt’ by the organisation and demonstrated in a variety of ways:
- Management role modelling of safe behaviours (‘walking the talk’)
- Good quality and effective communications
- Management’s attention to, and interest in health and safety – via safety tours, involvement in health and safety activities and events, what’s talked about, what managers choose to spend their time on
- Allocation of resources by the organisation
- The priority given to health and safety issues (compared with commercial) and how it deals with short term conflicts between priorities
For more information, see:
The role of managerial leadership in determining workplace safety outcome. HSE Report 044 (2003).
Leadership for the major hazard industries. Effective health and safety management. HSE.