Safety culture and leadership fundamentals

A few years ago, safety and health executives from worldsteel member organisations asked us to draw up recommendations to improve safety culture and leadership in the global steel industry. By doing so, they recognised these two aspects as the main pillars of safety excellence and vital component toward reaching zero fatalities and serious injuries.

Delivering comprehensive recommendations to improve culture is not easy, and safety culture even less so. There is a myriad of definitions available around the world, and various tools have been developed to measure and improve safety culture in different contexts and countries. All this work helped us draw up a set of recommendations. Our biggest challenge, as a global association, was to adapt our recommendations and make them effective and sensitive to different people and “cultures”.

Even now in 2022, there are many different concepts and views arising from safety science authors, psychologists, and safety practitioners. Despite these many views, tools, and different bodies of knowledge available, there are patterns of success in our own and other industries that dictate a pragmatic and sensible path to follow.

We at worldsteel have reflected this path in four safety culture and leadership fundamentals. With these new fundamentals, worldsteel establishes common ground to talk about culture and leadership in the steel industry.

The fundamentals act as a tool to create safer workplaces by enabling positive changes in the existing operating contexts. Our new publication provides a number of examples of the new mindset centred around dialogue and empathy for a safer and healthier environment.

They also act as a framework for worldsteel to continuously develop training and guidance.

Four safety and health culture and leadership fundamentals: