What is the Safety Culture Assessment?
The SCA helps to assess the
six dimensions of a strong workplace safety culture.
Why did we develop the SCA?
We developed the SCA to meet two requirements:
- To help workplaces understand and improve their safety culture and its relationship to
their safety and health efforts.
- To help assess whether or not safety certification (i.e., SAFE Work Certified) is helping
to improve a workplace's safety and health management system in reducing the risk of
injury and illness.
How is the SCA being used in Manitoba?
SAFE Work Manitoba is the first in the country to use the SCA, adapted from the IWH-OPM, to
help workplaces assess their safety and health performance as part of the
safety certification progress. To do this, it is completed twice prior to certification and then annually with each
maintenance audit. The SCA is not used to grade a workplace's safety culture
Who completes the SCA?
For the purposes of SAFE Work Certified, the SCA is intended to be completed by the person in
the workplace most knowledgeable about its safety and health program and practices. Studies
completed by the IWH verify that this individual provides the most accurate reporting for each of
the items.
How was the SCA developed?
The SCA was developed in consultation with the IWH, and Manitoba safety and health
stakeholders. The SCA was adapted from the scientifically-tested Organizational Performance Metric created
by the IWH and is used with their permission. The IWH-OPM is published by the Institute for
Work & Health and licensed by IWH and is
available here. This
work is licensed by IWH under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives4.0 International License. It may be
used and shared as long as IWH is credited as the source, the questionnaire is not modified,
and the questionnaire is used for non-commercial purposes. If you wish to modify and/or use
the questionnaire for commercial purposes, please contact
ip@iwh.on.ca.
What happens to the SCA information?
The SCA results are collected by SAFE Work Manitoba to provide the workplace and SAFE
Work Manitoba a baseline measure for both the workplace safety culture and SAFE Work
Certified program strength. Individual responses, workplace information and any identifying
features will be kept confidential.
Where can I get assistance after I complete the SCA?
As shown on the SCA, your results will fall into one of three key areas:
Green (Safety Culture Assessment final score is equal to or greater than 3): You are
performing well overall. Keep doing what you are doing and strive for excellence.
Yellow (Safety Culture Assessment final score is equal to or greater than 2 but less than
3): Specific safety and health practices in your organization may need some improvement.
Consider if the lower scored items in your survey should be a focus area for your company.
Review your practices and policies, and consider consulting your
Industry-Based Safety Program (IBSP) representative or a safety and health professional for information about ways to
improve.
Red (Safety Culture Assessment final score is less than 2): Your work in safety and health
likely needs attention and improvement. It is recommended you contact your
IBSP representative or a safety and health professional for customized assistance.
Are there other ways to use the SCA?
Workplaces are free to use the tool in other ways, including as a broad workplace survey. In
doing so, they should ensure they follow survey protocols, including ensuring
privacy/confidentiality, communicating results, and reporting on strategies and tactics for making
improvements.
Across Canada, a number of provinces have already adopted the IWH-OPM and are using it in
a variety of ways, including to support client engagement, build benchmarks, build
conversations in high-risk industries and start conversations with CEOs.
There is also an effort by the Association of Workers’ Compensation Boards of Canada
(AWCBC) to have each province collect IWH-OPM data in order to set cross-provincial
benchmarks.
