Safety culture assessment and development

Safety culture assessment enables the continuous improvement of an organisation’s safety performance according to international standards.
Key facts
Technical excellence alone does not prevent accidents.
It is hard for organisations to unearth their own shared cultural assumptions about safety.
There is a need to adopt a systemic approach to safety with focus on interactions between people, technology and organisations.

On this page
Safety is more than the absence of accidents and incidents. It is a dynamic capability to succeed under varying conditions. Safety culture refers to shared assumptions, values and practices with regard to safety, shaping the overall safety potential of a sociotechnical system.
Assuring a good safety culture in organisations or inter-organisational projects with complex supply chains can be challenging. VTT’s independent assessment with Design for Integrated Safety Culture model provides insights on the cultural characteristics and potential blind spots. We support regulators, operators and other stakeholders to improve organisational safety performance, including management system, leadership, and culture for safety.
VTT provides independent and science-based safety culture assessment to support organisational development.
The assessment can be tailored to different stakeholder needs and sectors, ranging from transport systems, healthcare or manufacturing to cover all nuclear power plant lifecycle phases. At VTT, social scientists and technical experts work together to ensure a systemic approach to safety, as well as efficient and reliable processes. VTT is an impartial partner with extensive experience on different regulatory requirements and working across cultures.
Improved safety motivates and energises. It positively affects productivity, work moral, trustworthiness and profits both in a single company and in clusters of organizations. We are here to help you better understand the underlying assumptions, complex sociotechical interfaces, inter-organizational relations and their effects on safety, security and business performance.
Take a look at what some of our clients has said about us:
VTT has been a reliable, competent, independent and flexible partner with a safety culture evaluation model and approach that is suitable regarding the STUK requirements. Further the use of the same model and approach is useful regarding following up the development of safety culture.
Cooperation with VTT in traffic safety culture assessment was smooth and very professional. We found their self-direction particularly valuable. After initial identification of requirements, little steering was needed from us as the customer, and the assessment progressed rapidly while meeting its objectives. Throughout the assessment, the experts had a clear vision and proposition on how to proceed in each stage of the assessment.
Our services
- Organization safety culture assessment tailored to the lifecycle phase
- Recommendations for the development of safety culture
- Independent evaluation of safety culture self-assessment
- Support of safety culture development in the supply chain