Ethos has been successfully providing Safety Culture Assessments for its clients for several years. This has seen us provide work in a variety of different industries e.g.

• Oil & Gas
• Nuclear
• Maritime
• Energy Sector
• Power Generation & Distribution
• Aluminium production & manufacturing

This has enabled us to work with a number of national and multinational organisations with workforce levels ranging from 240 to 30,000+. This has also included assessing the culture of a specific external business unit being integrated into the organisation.

What is a Safety Culture?

The term ‘safety culture’ first emerged following the International Atomic Energy Agency’s initial report into the Chernobyl disaster (IAEA, 1986).

A simple way to describe the culture in an organisation is:

‘The way we do things around here, and why we do them that way’

If you want to find out more about this read our article below on what makes a safety culture (remember to link an article)

Collaborating with the Energy Institute

Ethos has recently strengthened our safety culture assessments by joining forces with the Energy Institute to run the Hearts and Minds program.

Hearts and Minds originated in Shell, and is based on a £20 million research programme carried out in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s – research that is still going on today. It has provided a suite of tools to help improve the safety culture of organisations in various industries such as:

• Oil & Gas
• Power Generation
• Shipping
• Aviation
• Rail
• Pharmaceuticals
• Security & Defence

The Hearts and Minds programme considers 23 dimensions of safety culture which are mapped over 5 levels of development. Running the assessment will give you:

• A snapshot of the HSE culture in your organisation.
• A profile of the perceived strengths and weaknesses across the dimensions of HSE culture.
• Insight into the differences in perception across teams, areas, departments etc.
• The evidence base underpinning the perceptions.
• Specific suggestions on how the HSE culture in your organisation might be improved generated by the workforce.

Improvements noted with clients that have developed & implemented the proposed recommendations include:

• Reduced incident and fatality rate;
• Increased reporting;
• Increased involvement and ownership of safety;
• Increased investment from organisations in safety;
• Increased involvement and inclusion of workforce.