Organisations rarely question the importance of safety. But the more difficult question is whether investing in safety leadership training will deliver meaningful change and measurable results.
Six months into our Safety Leadership Program with renewable energy provider, Squadron Energy, we spoke with their Head of HSE, Alex Lovell, to find out where they have seen the biggest shifts in perspective and performance since introducing safety leadership in the field.
Reframing the role of safety
Prior to commencing the Safety Leadership Program with Southpac, safety at Squadron largely sat in familiar territory: those with the word safety in their title were responsible for safety. While leaders outside of that space were not disengaged with safety, they were uncertain about their contribution.
By introducing the Safety Leadership Program, Squadron's intent was to get people to understand that they don't need to have safety in their title to influence safer outcomes. Everyone can be a safety leader.
"We want people to understand that they can proactively lead safety in the field. There is a compliance aspect to that, but it needs to be enhanced with good conversations, listening, curious questions, being inquisitive and understanding that you don't need to be the expert."
— Alex Lovell
The measure here has been twofold: firstly, for people at any level to identify that they have a role to play in shaping safety. And secondly, building their capability and confidence to be curious, to be willing to listen, and make positive changes.
With a suite of tools and confidence from the training, the hesitation around initiating conversations has been reduced.
Frontline compliance checks are now enriched with the skills learnt from the Safety Leadership training – becoming more about the conversation than the checklist.
For example, a routine working at heights check has gone from observing if workers are wearing their harness and using edge protection, to conversation-led interactions, leading with questions like, "Tell me a little bit about what's keeping you safe during this task? What's hard about it? If something went wrong, what would you do?"
"For us, it's about overlaying the skills that we've learnt onto a compliance activity to make it a richer experience for both people."
This has been a palpable shift for participants of the program, who now feel confident to ask questions and listen rather than just enforcing compliance.
What does success look like in Safety Leadership?
With traditional safety training, return on investment is rarely questioned. Most organisations consider safety training to be necessary, and in some cases, mandatory, to improve awareness and reduce risk.
Investing in safety leadership, on the other hand, can come with added scrutiny. There's not only apprehension around whether the content and concepts will land, but how the impact will be measured. Despite what some organisations may think, keeping count or implementing quotas for the number of safety conversations isn't the goal.
The value of safety leadership training comes in the quality of conversations, the insights gained from the frontline by asking better questions, the elevated awareness of safety during everyday work, and the ability to remain curious when conditions appear normal.
"When people are challenged, now they can stop and think, maybe I actually need to ask an open question. Maybe I need to be a little bit more curious. Maybe I need to pull a group of people together and act as a host to come to a better solution rather than being a top down leader."
Measuring the impact at Squadron
Squadron took a deliberate approach to understanding the return on investment of the program, introducing a combination of quantitative and qualitative measures across the organisation. This allowed them to track not just participation, but shifts in how safety is understood and led in practice.
Key indicators included:
Pre-training surveys, gauging both the perception and reality of safety leadership prior to the commencement of training
Post-training evaluation, identifying the components of the training that participants have found most valuable or relevant
Anecdotal feedback and stories, giving executives direct insight into how the training is influencing real decisions and behaviours
Year-on-year comparison of responses to the Safety Culture survey, providing an annual pulse check on how safety is observed, organisation-wide
The anecdotal feedback in particular has proven valuable. Executives have seen powerful stories and moments emerge as a result of the training that wouldn't have occurred otherwise. Here, the impact has been amplified through the ongoing coaching sessions providing a platform for these stories to be shared and learnt from.
For Squadron’s accountable leaders, a real measure of success has been in seeing people take the time to understand and question the realities of work, even when schedules are tight and priorities are competing.
"It's very easy when you are time poor, pressured, trying to meet deadlines, to just make the decision and move on. Tick it off. I've done my job. But the reality is by spending a little bit of time, by asking a few questions, being a bit curious, the likelihood of a better outcome is increased.
In parts of the business where safety is not always seen as a core responsibility, the shift has been notable. People in non-safety roles are beginning to recognise the role they play, and the influence they have, by showing courage, starting conversations with the intent to listen, and staying curious.