Webinar Summary: Unlocking Safety Excellence with Systems and Leadership
In our recent webinar with Vatix, we explored how safety excellence can be achieved by integrating strong leadership with effective safety systems. This session was aimed at larger, more complex organisations that are committed to going beyond compliance and embarking on a long-term safety transformation journey. Below are the key insights and takeaways from our discussion.
The DEKRA Safety Ecosystem: A Framework for Success
The DEKRA Safety Ecosystem was one of the key concepts discussed during the webinar. This framework helps organisations achieve safety, reliability, quality, and efficiency in their operations. The core of the ecosystem consists of enabling systems, sustaining systems, and authentic leadership—all working together to create a safety-first culture.
- Enabling Systems: These are the processes and tools, such as audits, inspections, and risk assessments, that form the foundation of safety management. They ensure that organisations have the structure needed to monitor and improve safety performance.
- Sustaining Systems: While enabling systems help establish safety practices, sustaining systems ensure that these practices are consistently followed and improved over time. This prevents stagnation and keeps the safety culture active and evolving.
- Authentic Leadership: Leadership is crucial to reinforcing and enforcing safety culture. Authentic leaders inspire trust, communicate safety values consistently, and maintain the engagement necessary to drive long-term improvements.
Tackling Safety Challenges with Technology
Vatix shared their insights into how technology plays a critical role in supporting safety systems. Their health, safety, and governance risk and compliance (GRC) management platform helps organisations manage safety across large and complex environments. However, simply implementing technology isn’t enough. Mark Newton from Vatix highlighted the importance of choosing flexible and customisable systems that can grow and adapt with the organisation.
An important takeaway was the emphasis on quick wins. Organisations should avoid aiming for perfection from the start. Instead, they should focus on implementing one system, such as incident reporting, and building confidence within the team before expanding to more complex safety initiatives like audits and risk assessments. This approach helps establish buy-in at all levels of the organisation and ensures that safety systems are sustainable over the long term.
Aligning Leadership and Workforce Engagement
The conversation highlighted the often overlooked role of middle management and frontline workers in maintaining safety systems. While leadership sets the tone, safety programs thrive when employees at every level are engaged. Effective safety systems should bridge the gap between leadership and the frontline, ensuring everyone feels involved and accountable.
We discussed how authentic leadership can foster this engagement. Leaders who are visible, consistent, and approachable create an environment where employees feel safe to raise concerns and take ownership of safety. This approach not only drives compliance but also creates a culture of commitment where safety becomes a shared responsibility.
Measuring Success and Continuous Improvement
Continuous engagement and measurement were recurring themes throughout the webinar. To sustain safety improvements, organisations must regularly review and iterate their safety programs. This includes:
- Program Governance: Establishing clear governance processes ensures that safety systems are maintained and continuously improved. Regular reviews help identify gaps and make adjustments as needed.
- Accountability: Organisations need to track who is responsible for what, ensuring that all team members understand their roles in maintaining safety standards. Clear accountability helps avoid the common pitfall of systems becoming underused or inconsistently applied.
- Innovation: As businesses grow and evolve, so too must their safety programs. Leaders should keep safety initiatives fresh by innovating and exploring new tools or strategies to maintain employee engagement and prevent safety fatigue.
The Role of Authentic Leadership in Driving Safety
One of the key takeaways from the webinar was the critical role that authentic leadership plays in building and sustaining safety culture. Authentic leaders are those who not only set the vision for safety but also actively participate in the day-to-day efforts to maintain it. They communicate consistently, model desired behaviours, and hold their teams accountable.
We also discussed the importance of leadership at all levels—not just the C-suite but also middle management and frontline supervisors. In many cases, safety initiatives falter because leadership at these levels lacks the necessary support or engagement. By developing authentic leaders throughout the organisation, safety culture becomes embedded, not just enforced from the top down.
Conclusion
Achieving safety excellence is a long-term journey that requires the right combination of leadership, systems, and workforce engagement. The DEKRA Safety Ecosystem provides a comprehensive framework for success, helping organisations establish robust enabling and sustaining systems supported by authentic leadership.
To learn more about how these principles can be applied to your organisation, you can revisit the full webinar or reach out to us for further insights and resources.
Interested in taking your safety culture to the next level? Watch our webinar with Vatix for in-depth insights on how to combine systems and leadership to drive safety excellence.