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Safety - Competency

Definition: Safety is the integrated practice of leading, developing, and sustaining systems that protect people by aligning roles, processes, and policies with zero‑injury goals while continuously strengthening programs through thoughtful planning and improvement. It requires actively assessing work practices and environments, conducting inspections and audits, and using data, documentation, and communication to identify risks, ensure compliance, and drive corrective action. Safety also depends on building capability--evaluating training needs, providing instruction, modeling participation, and ensuring employees have the knowledge, equipment, and resources to work safely across all conditions, including hazardous materials and emergency scenarios. Ultimately, Safety is a collaborative, organization‑wide commitment to preventing incidents, investigating causes, mitigating hazards, and preparing for recovery so that every employee can work in a safe, healthy, and resilient environment.
Job Skills
Analytical
Administrative Skill
Decision Making
Quality
Critical Thinking
Problem Solving
Initiative
Innovation
Goals
Time Management
Change Management
Juggling Multiple Responsibilities
Achievement
Results Oriented
Commitment
Technical
Technology Use/Management
Clarity
Excellence
Objectives
Risk Management
Safety
Regulatory/Compliance
360-Feedback Surveys Measuring Safety:
Survey 1 (4-point scale; Competency Comments)
Survey 2 (4-point scale; Competency Comments)
Survey 3 (5-point scale; Competency Comments)
Survey 4 (5-point scale; radio buttons)
Survey 5 (4-point scale; words)
Survey 6 (4-point scale; words)
Survey 7 (5-point scale; competency comments; N/A)
Survey 8 (3-point scale; Agree/Disagree words; N/A)
Survey 9 (3-point scale; Strength/Development; N/A)
Survey 10 (Comment boxes only)
Survey 11 (Single rating per competency)
Survey 12 (Slide-bar scale)
Survey 13 (4-point scale; numbers; floating anchors)
Survey 14 (4-point scale; N/A)
Self-Comments: Do you have to complete a self-assessment or performance appraisal? If so, the
self-comments here may help.
Performance Assessments that include Safety:
Assessment 1 (5-point scale; IDP Comments)
Assessment 2 (3-point scale with Comments)
Assessment 3 (Manager Assessment; 360-Feedback)
Assessment 4 (3-point scale; Rating Limits)
Assessment 5 (3-point scale; Rating Limits)
Assessment 6 (5-point scale with Comments)
Assessment 7 (Comment Boxes Only; IDP)
Assessment 8 (Comment Boxes Only)
Assessment 9 (3-point scale with Letter Grade)
Assessment 10 (360-Feedback; Bonus/Merit Pay)
Assessment 11 (Core Values & Job Competencies)
Assessment 12 (4-point scale; 6 Comment Boxes)
What is Safety?
Safety is the integrated system through which an organization leads, develops, and sustains a workplace committed to preventing harm and achieving zero-injury outcomes. It begins with strong leadership and management that align people, processes, and practices around safety goals, assign safety roles, and create the structures needed for accountability. Development strengthens this foundation by creating and implementing zero-incident policies, designing new safety initiatives, and building a culture that continually evolves. Through ongoing review, analysis, and inspections--supported by formal auditing--organizations assess employee practices, evaluate job-specific risks, conduct follow-up inspections, and benchmark performance to ensure programs remain effective and compliant with standards and regulations.

Safety also depends on consistent implementation and widespread awareness. Implementation brings safety to life through evidence-based practices, proper equipment, and the integration of safety considerations into everyday work, while awareness ensures employees and leaders understand guidelines, standards, and expectations. Documentation and communication reinforce this system by capturing accurate records of incidents, compliance, and safety discussions, and by clearly sharing hazard-mitigation strategies, investigation outcomes, and safety standards across the organization. Training plays a central role: assessing training needs, designing and delivering technical safety instruction, and ensuring employees actively participate and apply what they learn. Compliance ensures that all policies, practices, and regulatory requirements are followed, while collaboration--both internal and external--strengthens safety programs through shared expertise, coordinated problem-solving, and alignment with auditors, inspectors, and technical teams.

Finally, Safety is sustained through proactive cultural reinforcement and continuous improvement. Promoting safety keeps zero-injury goals visible and valued, while accident investigations uncover root causes and inform corrective actions. Improving safety requires timely issue resolution, the adoption of proven methods, and the use of data to reduce future risks. Protecting employees also means ensuring proper use and maintenance of personal protective equipment, maintaining a safe and ergonomic work environment, managing hazardous materials responsibly, and mitigating hazards through assessments, coaching, and updated controls. Disaster recovery extends this commitment by preparing for major disruptions, assessing critical operations, coordinating with stakeholders, and ensuring the organization can respond to and recover from emergencies while maintaining safety and continuity.
Core Components of Creativity
  • Leadership/Management: executing, sustaining, and operationalizing the organization's safety expectations. It's about putting structures in place, allocating resources, reinforcing policies, and ensuring people follow through. These behaviors emphasize oversight, coordination, and accountability--conducting safety meetings, assigning safety roles, supporting existing programs, and fostering a culture where safety is consistently practiced.
  • Development: designing new programs, establishing guidelines, defining roles, and building a sustainable safety culture from the ground up. These behaviors emphasize innovation, policy creation, employee involvement, and long-term improvement--developing safety programs, crafting zero-incident policies, and incorporating employee feedback into new initiatives.
  • Safety Review/Analysis/Inspections: examining the work environment, practices, and tasks themselves to identify hazards, evaluate risks, and determine what improvements are needed. It is hands-on, observational, and operational. This domain is about looking closely at jobs, behaviors, equipment, and conditions--conducting job safety analyses, performing inspections, assessing employee practices, and identifying safety needs in real time.
  • Auditing: evaluating the safety system itself--its programs, processes, compliance, and performance over time. It is more formal, structured, and data-driven. Auditing looks at whether the organization is meeting regulatory requirements, following internal policies, and performing at or above industry benchmarks. It involves reviewing incident data, analyzing trends, comparing performance across departments, and determining which issues require urgent attention.
  • Implementation: putting safety into action through the behaviors of someone who actively applies, integrates, and operationalizes safety practices in the workplace. This includes adopting best-practice methods, embedding safety into policies and procedures, providing equipment and materials, and carrying out concrete steps that directly improve safety performance.
  • Awareness: understanding, recognizing, and communicating safety expectations reflecting a manager's knowledge of OSHA and company guidelines, their ability to promote safety standards, and their role in helping others understand what safe practices look like. Awareness is more cognitive and communication-oriented--knowing the rules, recognizing their importance, and raising visibility across the organization.
  • Documentation: capturing, organizing, and maintaining accurate records that reflect what has happened, what is happening, and how safety performance is trending. It is about creating a reliable factual foundation for decision-making. Documentation behaviors include recording incidents, summarizing safety-meeting discussions, tracking losses, documenting compliance, and measuring performance over time.
  • Communication: sharing information so that employees, leaders, and stakeholders understand safety expectations, progress, risks, and outcomes. It is about translating information into messages that influence behavior, build awareness, and support organizational learning. Communication behaviors include explaining safety standards, delivering briefings, informing management of progress, sharing investigation results, and preparing reports for distribution.
  • Training Assessment: the diagnostic, analytical, and planning side of safety training. It's about understanding what employees need to learn, why they need it, and how training should be structured to close knowledge or skill gaps. This includes identifying high-risk areas, reviewing incident trends, evaluating whether past training worked, tailoring content to different roles, and setting training goals for the organization.
  • Provides Training: the delivery, instruction, and execution of safety training. It's about actually teaching employees--designing programs, conducting sessions, demonstrating technical skills, onboarding new staff, and ensuring people know how to perform tasks safely. This domain emphasizes communication, coaching, hands-on instruction, and ensuring employees can apply what they've learned.
  • Participates in Training: a manager's engagement with learning--their willingness to attend training, model enthusiasm, stay current on new offerings, and encourage others to participate. It reflects behaviors that show commitment to continuous improvement and a learning-oriented safety culture. This domain is about being an active learner and role model: showing up, engaging fully, applying what is learned, and ensuring employees take part in the training process.
  • Compliance: a manager's responsibility to enforce rules, standards, and regulatory requirements. It reflects oversight, accountability, and adherence to external and internal mandates--ensuring employees are certified, ensuring supervisors understand compliance expectations, correcting safety issues, and making sure policies and regulations are followed. Compliance is about ensuring the organization meets legal, regulatory, and policy obligations.
Why is Safety important?
Safety, defined as a comprehensive system of leadership, development, analysis, auditing, implementation, communication, training, compliance, collaboration, and continuous improvement, is essential because it protects the most valuable asset any organization has--its people. When companies invest in strong safety practices, they reduce injuries, prevent costly incidents, and maintain stable operations, which directly supports productivity, quality, and organizational resilience. A robust safety system also strengthens trust: employees feel supported, leaders demonstrate accountability, and stakeholders gain confidence that the organization manages risk responsibly. Ultimately, prioritizing safety enables companies to operate ethically, sustainably, and competitively, creating a workplace where people can perform at their best and the organization can thrive over the long term.
How can I improve Safety?
  • Model consistent safety leadership by aligning people, processes, and expectations with zero-injury goals and demonstrating visible commitment to safe practices.
  • Strengthen hazard awareness through regular walkthroughs, inspections, and conversations that help employees recognize risks and understand how to prevent them.
  • Use data and audits to drive improvement by reviewing incident trends, near-misses, and compliance gaps, then adjusting programs and controls accordingly.
  • Invest in high-quality training by assessing skill gaps, tailoring instruction to job risks, and ensuring employees receive hands-on, practical safety education.
  • Promote open communication and reporting so employees feel safe raising concerns, sharing observations, and participating in problem-solving without fear of blame.
  • Ensure proper equipment and environment by maintaining PPE, tools, and workspaces, and addressing environmental hazards such as clutter, poor ergonomics, or inadequate ventilation.
  • Collaborate across teams and departments (including facilities, HR, engineering, and external auditors) to strengthen safety systems and ensure alignment with regulations and best practices.
  • Reinforce a culture of continuous improvement by recognizing safe behaviors, encouraging employee involvement, and integrating lessons learned from incidents into future policies and training.
What are the benefits of good Safety practices?
  • Reduces injuries and incidents: Fewer accidents mean employees can work confidently and consistently without disruptions. This stability strengthens overall productivity and minimizes costly downtime.
  • Improves employee morale and trust: When people see that their well-being is prioritized, they feel valued and supported. That sense of security strengthens engagement and commitment to the organization.
  • Enhances operational efficiency: Safe environments reduce errors, equipment damage, and workflow interruptions. As a result, teams can focus on high-quality work rather than reacting to preventable problems.
  • Strengthens organizational reputation: Companies known for strong safety practices earn credibility with customers, partners, and regulators. This reputation can open doors to new opportunities and reduce scrutiny or penalties.
  • Supports long-term organizational resilience: Effective safety systems help organizations anticipate risks and adapt before issues escalate. This proactive approach protects both people and operations, ensuring continuity and long-term success.
What questions could be included on a 360-degree survey that measure safety practices?
The questionnaire items below will measure safety. These questions are grouped into different facets of safety. When creating a 360-degree or other performance assessment, try to select one or two items from each group.

Questions to include on your survey.



Leadership/Management
Leadership/Management in the Safety dimension focuses on executing, sustaining, and operationalizing the organization's safety expectations. It's about putting structures in place, allocating resources, reinforcing policies, and ensuring people follow through. These behaviors emphasize oversight, coordination, and accountability--conducting safety meetings, assigning safety roles, supporting existing programs, and fostering a culture where safety is consistently practiced. Leadership/Management is about running the safety system that already exists, making sure it functions day-to-day, and ensuring people, processes, and practices stay aligned with zero-injury goals.


Development
Development is about creating, shaping, and improving the safety system itself. It focuses on designing new programs, establishing guidelines, defining roles, and building a sustainable safety culture from the ground up. These behaviors emphasize innovation, policy creation, employee involvement, and long-term improvement--developing safety programs, crafting zero-incident policies, and incorporating employee feedback into new initiatives. Development is about building the future state of safety, ensuring the organization evolves, adapts, and continuously strengthens its safety culture and infrastructure.


Safety Review/Analysis/Inspections
Safety Review/Analysis/Inspections focuses on examining the work environment, practices, and tasks themselves to identify hazards, evaluate risks, and determine what improvements are needed. It is hands-on, observational, and operational. This domain is about looking closely at jobs, behaviors, equipment, and conditions--conducting job safety analyses, performing inspections, assessing employee practices, and identifying safety needs in real time. It emphasizes understanding how work is actually performed, spotting gaps, and recommending immediate or near-term improvements. Review/Analysis/Inspections is about evaluating the safety of day-to-day operations and identifying risks within the work environment.


Auditing
Auditing focuses on evaluating the safety system itself--its programs, processes, compliance, and performance over time. It is more formal, structured, and data-driven. Auditing looks at whether the organization is meeting regulatory requirements, following internal policies, and performing at or above industry benchmarks. It involves reviewing incident data, analyzing trends, comparing performance across departments, and determining which issues require urgent attention. Rather than examining individual tasks or workspaces, Auditing evaluates the effectiveness, consistency, and compliance of the entire safety program, often using analytics, documentation reviews, and performance metrics.


Implementation
Implementation in the Safety dimension is about putting safety into action through the behaviors of someone who actively applies, integrates, and operationalizes safety practices in the workplace. This includes adopting best-practice methods, embedding safety into policies and procedures, providing equipment and materials, and carrying out concrete steps that directly improve safety performance. Implementation is hands-on and execution-focused--turning safety standards into real behaviors, tools, processes, and systems that employees use every day.


Awareness
Awareness is about understanding, recognizing, and communicating safety expectations reflecting a manager's knowledge of OSHA and company guidelines, their ability to promote safety standards, and their role in helping others understand what safe practices look like. Awareness is more cognitive and communication-oriented--knowing the rules, recognizing their importance, and raising visibility across the organization. While Implementation is about doing, Awareness is about knowing and helping others know, ensuring that safety expectations are understood before they are put into practice.


Documentation
Documentation in the Safety dimension focuses on capturing, organizing, and maintaining accurate records that reflect what has happened, what is happening, and how safety performance is trending. It is about creating a reliable factual foundation for decision-making. Documentation behaviors include recording incidents, summarizing safety-meeting discussions, tracking losses, documenting compliance, and measuring performance over time. The emphasis is on accuracy, completeness, and consistency--building the official record of safety activities, outcomes, and trends. Documentation is about creating the evidence that supports analysis, accountability, and improvement.


Communication
Communication focuses on sharing information so that employees, leaders, and stakeholders understand safety expectations, progress, risks, and outcomes. It is about translating information into messages that influence behavior, build awareness, and support organizational learning. Communication behaviors include explaining safety standards, delivering briefings, informing management of progress, sharing investigation results, and preparing reports for distribution. The emphasis is on clarity, timeliness, and audience-appropriate messaging. Communication is about using information to guide people, reinforce safety culture, and ensure everyone knows what they need to know to work safely.


Training Assessment
Training Assessment focuses on the diagnostic, analytical, and planning side of safety training. It's about understanding what employees need to learn, why they need it, and how training should be structured to close knowledge or skill gaps. This includes identifying high-risk areas, reviewing incident trends, evaluating whether past training worked, tailoring content to different roles, and setting training goals for the organization. In essence, Training Assessment is about figuring out the right training, ensuring it aligns with risks, and continuously improving it based on data, feedback, and performance outcomes.


Provides Training
Provides Training focuses on the delivery, instruction, and execution of safety training. It's about actually teaching employees--designing programs, conducting sessions, demonstrating technical skills, onboarding new staff, and ensuring people know how to perform tasks safely. This domain emphasizes communication, coaching, hands-on instruction, and ensuring employees can apply what they've learned. In short, Provides Training is about delivering the training effectively, building capability, and ensuring employees gain the practical skills needed to work safely.


Participates in Training
Participates in Training focuses on a manager's engagement with learning--their willingness to attend training, model enthusiasm, stay current on new offerings, and encourage others to participate. It reflects behaviors that show commitment to continuous improvement and a learning-oriented safety culture. This domain is about being an active learner and role model: showing up, engaging fully, applying what is learned, and ensuring employees take part in the training process. Participates in Training is about actively taking part in safety education and promoting a culture that values learning.


Compliance
Compliance focuses on a manager's responsibility to enforce rules, standards, and regulatory requirements. It reflects oversight, accountability, and adherence to external and internal mandates--ensuring employees are certified, ensuring supervisors understand compliance expectations, correcting safety issues, and making sure policies and regulations are followed. Compliance is about ensuring the organization meets legal, regulatory, and policy obligations. It emphasizes enforcement, verification, and corrective action rather than participation or modeling.


Collaboration
Collaboration in the Safety dimension is about working with others to strengthen safety systems, solve problems, and ensuring compliance by emphasizing partnership, coordination, and shared responsibility. This includes working with external auditors, insurers, regulatory inspectors, HR, facilities, engineering teams, supervisors, and employees to evaluate safety practices, address concerns, and improve programs. Collaboration is outward-facing and relationship-driven: it relies on communication, cooperation, and leveraging the expertise of multiple stakeholders. Collaboration is about building connections and working jointly with others to enhance safety performance across the organization.


Promoting Safety
Promoting Safety is about influencing people and shaping the culture so that safety becomes a shared value focusing on communication, encouragement, visibility, and motivation--reminding employees to work safely, pointing out unsafe behaviors, celebrating safety successes, and championing zero-injury goals. These behaviors are outward-facing and culture-building: they raise awareness, reinforce expectations, and inspire others to prioritize safety. In short, Promoting Safety is about advocating for safety, keeping it top-of-mind, and creating an environment where employees feel encouraged and supported to act safely.


Accident Investigations
Accident Investigations is about analyzing specific incidents to understand what happened, why it happened, and how to prevent it from happening again. It focuses on evidence collection, interviewing witnesses, identifying root causes, distinguishing between human error and system failures, and recommending corrective actions. This domain is investigative, analytical, and detail-oriented. It requires objectivity, structured methods, and a no-blame approach that encourages honest reporting. Accident Investigations is about digging into incidents to uncover causes and drive corrective action, rather than partnering broadly to improve safety systems.


Improving Safety
Improving Safety is about taking concrete actions that directly reduce risk and prevent incidents by focusing on identifying hazards, questioning unsafe conditions, applying best-practice methods, resolving issues quickly, analyzing near misses, and using data to drive better outcomes. These behaviors are hands-on, corrective, and performance-oriented: they change processes, fix problems, and strengthen systems. Improving Safety is about making safety measurably better through action, problem-solving, and continuous improvement--not just encouraging safe behavior, but actively reducing the likelihood of harm.


Personal Protective Equipment
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) focuses on one specific category of hazard control: ensuring employees have, understand, and properly use the protective gear required to keep them safe. This domain is narrow and equipment-focused. It includes providing PPE, ensuring proper fit, training employees on correct use, inspecting and maintaining PPE, and verifying consistent compliance. The emphasis is on the last line of defense--protecting employees when hazards cannot be fully eliminated. PPE is about managing the tools and behaviors that protect workers from exposure, making sure the right equipment is available, used correctly, and kept in good condition.


Work Environment
Work Environment focuses on the overall physical conditions in which employees perform their jobs. It emphasizes identifying and correcting general workplace hazards--such as clutter, poor ergonomics, blocked exits, inadequate lighting, or unsafe workstation setups. This domain is broad and environmental: it covers walkthroughs, hazard recognition, maintaining clean and orderly spaces, ensuring safe access and egress, and monitoring conditions like noise, temperature, and ventilation. Work Environment is about creating and maintaining a safe, healthy, and hazard-free physical workspace for all employees, regardless of the specific materials or equipment they use.


Hazardous Materials
Hazardous Materials focuses on the specialized risks, equipment, and procedures associated with handling, storing, and maintaining materials that pose chemical, biological, or physical dangers. This domain is narrower and more technical: it includes maintaining materials-handling equipment, ensuring employees are trained to handle hazardous substances, keeping Material Safety Data Sheets current, and monitoring equipment used to move or store hazardous materials. It emphasizes regulatory compliance, equipment reliability, and safe handling practices. Hazardous Materials is about managing the unique risks associated with dangerous substances and the equipment used to handle them, ensuring both safety and regulatory adherence.


Incident/Hazard Mitigation
Incident/Hazard Mitigation focuses on preventing incidents from happening in the first place and reducing the severity of hazards that already exist. It is immediate, operational, and rooted in day-to-day safety management. This domain includes identifying hazards early, correcting unsafe conditions, coaching employees on safe behaviors, updating controls as risks evolve, and verifying that corrective actions are effective. The emphasis is on continuous monitoring, rapid response, and proactive risk reduction. In short, Incident/Hazard Mitigation is about keeping the workplace safe right now by eliminating or controlling hazards before they escalate into serious events.


Disaster Recovery
Disaster Recovery focuses on planning for, responding to, and recovering from major disruptive events--events that exceed normal incident-level hazards and threaten operations, infrastructure, or organizational continuity. This domain includes developing recovery plans, coordinating with internal and external partners, protecting critical systems and data, assessing organizational resilience, and supporting employees during and after a disaster. It emphasizes preparedness, long-term recovery strategies, and the ability to restore operations after a significant disruption. Disaster Recovery is about ensuring the organization can withstand and recover from large-scale emergencies, not just everyday hazards.
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