Safety Survey : An introduction (Part of Active Monitoring Tool)

Safety Survey ( An systematic detailed examination of one or many H&S issue): It focuses on specific H&S topics, like a survey of fire precautions, and is normally carried by a H&S practitioner or a H&S specialist.

A safety perception survey provides a quantitative measure of how employees feel about current safety policies and procedures, and provides them an opportunity to share their recommendations ( feedback , opinion) for improvement.
Safety Surveys reveal GAP between employee perceptions and management perceptions.
Detailed report on main strengths and weakness with an action plan are normally produced as a result of survey.
The Safety survey should be repeated at regular intervals so managers can keep track of the progress the safety improvements made over time.

E.g.

Safety Opinion Survey,
Safety Perception Survey,
Safety Climate Survey,
H&S Cultures Survey,
Employee engagement H&S surveys,
Employee H&S satisfaction Survey etc.

Safety Survey monitoring techniques/tools helps in future safety performance:

What are the advantages of Safety Survey over a safety inspection?

It helps to develop positive Safety Culture ( Culture of trust).
It provides more accurate measurement as employees feel free to express their opinion.
Surveys can reveal perception gaps , improvements, and opportunities.
It is a cost effective method.
Easy to administer and flexible method for identifying hazards by sampling the workforce opinion within an organisation.
Anonymously, employees feel free to express their opinion.
Improves worker involvement participation, and engagement at workplace

Limitations of safety surveys:

survey checklist may be subject to Individual perception
survey checklist may be biased
insufficient data due to low response rate of the survey

According to ICAO Doc 9859 - Safety Management Manual, the common principles and procedures that need to be followed when conducting a safety survey are:

Objectives - the goal of the survey should be clearly declared for all intended respondents.
Sample size - should be sufficient to permit valid conclusions to be drawn from the information collected.
Neutral and unbiased - the survey is best to be conducted through the use of checklists, questionnaires and interviews as necessary, in a way that will encourage openness of the participants.
Reducing risk of bias - the random selection of the participants will help reducing the risk of receiving biased information.
Formulating and sequencing survey questions - open-ended questions requiring narrative responses should be avoided in surveys. Rather, questions should elicit specific responses (which can be scored). These might include evaluating an opinion along some predetermined scale, e.g. from strongly disagree, through neither agree nor disagree, to completely agree.
Prior coordination - should be made with the authorities governing the target respondents, unions and professional associations.
Assurance of confidentiality - regarding the information collected through the survey.
Some other factors that ICAO suggest for consideration when conducting a survey are to obtain the cooperation of the people involved, avoid perception of “witch-hunt” and to respect the operational experience of target respondents.

Managing the Survey Results

According to ICAO Doc 9859 - Safety Management Manual, data gathering and analysis, the development of the recommendations, and the preparation of the final survey report takes considerable amount of time. That is why, it is desirable to conduct a briefing with those responsible as soon as the survey has been completed, and if any conclusions are immediately available, they should be discussed informally.

The recommendations, stemming from the survey should be sensible and not over-reactive, and they should be within the scope and ability of the organisation. The validity of all survey information obtained may need to be verified before corrective action is taken. According to ICAO, sensitive issues should not be avoided, but care should be taken to ensure that they are presented in a fair, constructive, and diplomatic manner.