Safety culture ladder

The Safety Culture Ladder (known in the Netherlands as "the Safety Ladder") is an assessment method to measure safety and health awareness in companies with the aim: to reduce the number of unsafe situations. The Safety Culture Ladder is suitable for all types of organisations. Both profit and non-profit, large and small organisations.

The Safety Culture Ladder is an international instrument that provides organisations with concrete tools for setting up, implementing and testing elements to ensure safe working and safe behaviour in the culture of their organisation.

Why is the Safety Culture Ladder important for my organization?

In the first place, the SCL is intended to encourage companies to work more safely and more healthily. Specific attention is paid to company culture and behavior and therefore emphasizes other aspects than systems such as ISO 45001 and VCA. In addition, an SCL certificate is increasingly required for tenders and contracts for (inter) national suppliers. From 2021, the SCL will also be made mandatory by the Dutch construction governance code.

Certification Safety Culture ladder (SCL)

With the SCL certificate, companies show that safety awareness is a quality aspect of their organisation. Specific attention is paid to corporate culture and behaviour to increase safety awareness.

Unlike other schemes, the Safety Culture Ladder will not assess the audit on the basis of documents, but rather by engaging in a dialogue with those involved. By interviewing employees from all layers within the organisation and visiting projects.

Five Steps of the Safety Culture Ladder

How can I get my organization certified? The Safety Culture Ladder consists of five steps. Each step indicates which business aspects your company complies with. The higher the step, the more aware your organisation is of safety and health aspects. Each step defines what an organisation must comply with (the requirement), which criteria belong to it (the standard), how these criteria are valued (the scores) and what independent auditors look for (the auditor guideline). 

Stage 1 Pathological:

We don't worry as long as we don't get caught.

Stage 2 Reactive:

Health and safety is important and we do a lot when something happens to us.

Stage 3 Calculative:

We have the system in place.

Step 4 Proactive:

We work on the problems we keep finding.

Step 5 Progressive:

Safety and health are central and fully integrated into our work.

Want to know more about the Safety Culture Ladder? Or do you have questions about how to get your organization certified? Then get in touch with us. We will be happy to tell you more.