Safety Culture Development Training Course

Duration 10 days 16 modules · 65 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends HSE Managers, Health and Safety Advisers and others
Fee from USD 2,200 KSh 190,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-HM-080

Before you join: Participants should have basic familiarity with workplace health and safety responsibilities, risk assessment, incident reporting or operational supervision.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Safety culture determines how people respond when procedures are incomplete, schedules are tight, supervision is absent or risks change during work. Organisations may have sound HSE policies and technical controls yet still experience underreporting, weak challenge, inconsistent contractor practices and repeated events if everyday decisions reward production over safe work. Developing culture requires more than awareness campaigns: it requires visible leadership, fair accountability, workforce participation, credible reporting and disciplined learning from work as it is actually performed.

This course equips participants to assess safety culture, identify the conditions shaping behaviour and design practical improvement actions. Participants use ISO 45001 and HSG65 principles to connect culture with HSE governance, risk controls, consultation, incident learning, contractor management and performance measurement. They examine just culture, psychological safety, human factors, critical control verification, behavioural observation and change management. By the end, participants can turn diagnostic evidence into a targeted culture improvement roadmap with ownership, milestones, measures and assurance arrangements.

Instruction is delivered over 10 days in classroom locations in 50+ cities or live online, from 08:30 to 16:30 each day, with approximately 6.5 contact hours daily. Short instructor briefings are combined with sector-based cases, facilitated analysis, group work, simulations and structured application planning. Participants build a safety culture diagnostic and improvement plan throughout the course, then review and present a complete version during the capstone. Successful participants receive a certificate of completion.

The course is suited to HSE practitioners, operational leaders, supervisors, project managers and others responsible for improving safety performance where workforce behaviour, leadership decisions and management systems must work together.

What you will be able to do

  • Diagnose safety culture using surveys, interviews, observations and performance evidence
  • Interpret ISO 45001 and HSG65 requirements for culture-focused HSE governance
  • Design a safety culture improvement roadmap with actions, owners, milestones and measures
  • Lead visible felt leadership routines and constructive safety conversations
  • Apply just culture principles to reporting, accountability and incident response decisions
  • Investigate incidents using timeline reconstruction, barrier analysis and evidence-based corrective actions
  • Measure culture change using leading indicators, dashboards and assurance reviews
  • Present a complete safety culture improvement plan to operational and executive stakeholders

Benefits of attending

For you

  • A practical method for diagnosing why safety messages and procedures do not translate into daily behaviour
  • Stronger credibility when advising leaders on reporting, accountability and workforce participation
  • Reusable approaches for leading safety conversations without blame or superficial compliance
  • Ability to turn incident and observation data into evidence-based improvement priorities
  • A completed safety culture improvement plan suitable for adaptation to the participant's workplace

For your organisation

  • Clearer links between leadership behaviour, workforce feedback and critical risk controls
  • Earlier reporting of near misses, weak signals and control degradation
  • More consistent supervisor practice across shifts, sites and contractor interfaces
  • Better-quality incident actions that address organisational conditions rather than individual blame
  • A measurable roadmap for improving culture, assurance and HSE governance

Course modules

16 modules over 10 days

Participants can distinguish culture, climate and behavioural norms and describe their effects on safety performance.

  • Definitions of culture, climate and behavioural norms in safety performance
  • Visible artefacts, stated values and underlying assumptions within workplace culture
  • Safety culture maturity characteristics from reactive through proactive operating patterns
  • Relationship between production pressure, risk decisions and cultural signals
  • Organisational subcultures shaped by sites, shifts, trades and management layers
  • Baseline culture statement framed around observable conditions and behaviours

Participants can connect culture improvement activity with HSE governance responsibilities and management-system requirements.

  • ISO 45001 clauses connecting leadership, consultation, competence and improvement
  • HSG65 Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle applied to cultural management controls
  • Board, executive and supervisor accountabilities within an HSE governance map
  • Safety objectives translated into leading actions, owners and review dates
  • Management review inputs that expose cultural weaknesses and control gaps
  • Policy commitments tested against resource allocation and operational decisions

Participants can plan and conduct a credible safety culture diagnostic using multiple evidence sources.

  • Culture diagnostic scope covering workforce groups, locations and critical risks
  • Survey question design using behavioural anchors and neutral wording
  • Focus-group protocol for psychological safety, trust and reporting barriers
  • Document review of incidents, audits, absenteeism and turnover patterns
  • Sampling plan distinguishing common themes from local concerns
  • Triangulation matrix comparing survey, interview, observation and performance evidence
  • Confidentiality controls protecting candid input and credible findings

Participants can define leadership routines that demonstrate visible commitment to safe work.

  • Leader standard work specifying field visits, questions and follow-through
  • Visible felt leadership demonstrated through risk conversations and timely decisions
  • Safety leadership styles matched to routine, upset and emergency conditions
  • Personal leadership commitments converted into observable weekly behaviours
  • Supervisor coaching using situation-behaviour-impact feedback and agreed actions
  • Escalation routes when production demands compromise critical safety controls

Participants can establish participation arrangements that convert workforce knowledge into safer work conditions.

  • Worker consultation requirements under ISO 45001 and local arrangements
  • Joint safety committee terms of reference, agendas and action tracking
  • Representative selection methods that include contractors, shifts and vulnerable workers
  • Co-design sessions turning frontline knowledge into control improvements
  • Stop-work authority communicated, exercised and protected from retaliation
  • Suggestion systems closed with response standards and ownership

Participants can apply fair accountability principles and create conditions for candid reporting and challenge.

  • Just culture principles separating human error, at-risk choices and recklessness
  • Fair accountability decision tree applied after unsafe acts
  • Psychological safety conditions for questioning, speaking up and admitting mistakes
  • Two-way communication plans for serious incidents and corrective actions
  • Supervisor language that invites challenge without assigning blame prematurely
  • Conflict handling during safety conversations using interest-based negotiation

Participants can improve reporting processes and convert events into useful organisational learning.

  • Near-miss reporting workflow from notification through feedback and closure
  • High-potential event criteria based on credible worst-case consequences
  • Learning team approach capturing work-as-done before assigning corrective actions
  • Five Whys analysis bounded by evidence, not assumptions
  • Corrective-action quality checks addressing system conditions and verification
  • Lessons-learned briefs tailored for crews, leaders and contractors

Participants can identify human factors that affect reliable performance and safe decision making.

  • Human factors influencing attention, fatigue, workload and decision making
  • Error-likely situations identified through task conditions and performance shaping factors
  • Pre-job briefings structured around hazards, controls, changes and stop points
  • Procedures tested for usability, accessibility and conflict with actual work
  • Fatigue risk indicators escalated through supervisor and scheduling controls
  • Designing recovery checks for critical tasks and handovers

Participants can link cultural interventions with material risks and critical control performance.

  • Bowtie method linking threats, preventive barriers, recovery measures and consequences
  • Critical control verification questions assigned to operational roles
  • Risk assessment facilitation separating hazard identification from control assumptions
  • Dynamic risk assessment during changing conditions, deviations and simultaneous operations
  • Control effectiveness tested through field observation and evidence sampling
  • Risk register entries linking cultural actions to material risk scenarios

Participants can set and monitor safety culture expectations across contractor relationships and work interfaces.

  • Contractor prequalification criteria covering safety culture expectations and capability
  • Contract award discussions testing leadership, reporting and worker involvement arrangements
  • Interface plans clarifying shared controls, communications and emergency responsibilities
  • Induction content reinforced through supervisor contact and worksite orientation
  • Contractor performance reviews using leading indicators, observations and workforce feedback
  • Procurement incentives aligned with reporting quality rather than low injury counts

Participants can investigate events without blame and develop corrective actions that address system conditions.

  • Incident investigation scope preserving evidence, people and operational context
  • Timeline reconstruction distinguishing work-as-imagined from work-as-performed
  • Barrier analysis identifying failed, missing and weakened safeguards
  • Interview techniques that obtain facts without leading or blaming
  • Root cause statements tested against evidence and management-system conditions
  • Action plans prioritised by risk reduction, ownership and effectiveness review

Participants can select, define and interpret measures that show culture and control-health trends.

  • Leading and lagging indicators matched to cultural objectives and risks
  • Balanced scorecard linking leadership activity, reporting quality and control health
  • Indicator definitions specifying numerator, denominator, source, frequency and owner
  • Run charts used to distinguish variation from meaningful performance change
  • Dashboard narratives explaining trends, limitations and required management decisions
  • Metric safeguards preventing underreporting, target distortion and superficial compliance

Participants can manage cultural and safety impacts when work, people or systems change.

  • Management of change triggers covering people, equipment, processes and workload
  • Stakeholder impact assessment identifying affected roles, concerns and influence
  • Change communication sequence explaining purpose, controls, support and feedback routes
  • Readiness checks confirming competence, resources and supervisor alignment
  • Resistance diagnosed as information, capability, incentive or trust gaps
  • Post-change review capturing unintended consequences and control degradation

Participants can use observation and feedback methods to identify conditions affecting safe behaviour.

  • Behavioural observation cards focused on conditions, choices and control quality
  • Peer observation boundaries that prevent surveillance and blame
  • Quality sampling plan covering tasks, shifts, locations and risk levels
  • Feedback conversations reinforcing safe choices and correcting exposure conditions
  • Observation data coded for themes, not individual performance rankings
  • Action tracking distinguishes local fixes from recurring system causes

Participants can establish governance, competence and assurance arrangements that sustain culture improvement.

  • Safety culture improvement roadmap sequenced by risk, readiness and resources
  • Thirty-sixty-ninety-day plan assigning actions, sponsors and review milestones
  • Governance cadence for workforce feedback, leadership review and escalation
  • Communication calendar linking campaigns to specific control and learning priorities
  • Competence plan covering leaders, supervisors, workers and contractor personnel
  • Assurance schedule combining field checks, interviews, metrics and audits
  • Benefits review measures adoption, control health and cultural shifts

Participants can build, review and present a complete safety culture improvement plan supported by evidence, controls and measures.

  • Culture diagnostic findings synthesised into priorities, evidence and risk statements
  • Safety culture improvement plan structured around objectives, actions and owners
  • Bowtie-linked interventions targeting critical control behaviours and supervisory routines
  • Leading indicators and review cadence specified for each intervention
  • Stakeholder engagement plan addresses workers, contractors, unions and leaders
  • Peer review challenges feasibility, unintended effects and assurance evidence
  • Executive presentation communicates choices, resources, milestones and accountability

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Safety culture diagnostic template
  2. Culture evidence triangulation matrix
  3. Visible safety leadership routine
  4. Just culture decision tree
  5. Critical control verification checklist
  6. Safety culture improvement roadmap

Who should attend

  • HSE Managers — responsible for improving safety performance through management systems and workforce engagement
  • Health and Safety Advisers — need practical methods for diagnosing culture and directing improvement work
  • Operations Managers — make daily decisions that shape production pressures, controls and safe behaviours
  • Supervisors and Team Leaders — influence reporting, pre-job briefings, coaching and field discipline
  • Project and Construction Managers — coordinate contractors, interfaces and changing work conditions
  • HR and Organisational Development Professionals — support leadership behaviours, speaking-up systems and fair accountability

Skills and tools covered

Safety culture diagnosisSafety leadershipJust culture practiceIncident learningCritical control assuranceHSE performance measurement

Tools and standards

ISO 45001, HSG65 Plan-Do-Check-Act, Bowtie method, Five Whys

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course combines focused instructor briefings with realistic cases from construction, energy, manufacturing, logistics and public services. Participants analyse culture evidence, conduct structured diagnostic work, practise safety conversations, review incident scenarios and make decisions during change and contractor-management simulations. Group exercises examine competing production and safety demands, reporting barriers and critical control failures. Each participant progressively develops a workplace-focused culture diagnostic and improvement plan, receiving peer and instructor feedback before presenting the completed work in the capstone.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have basic familiarity with workplace health and safety responsibilities, risk assessment, incident reporting or operational supervision. Experience in an HSE, operations, engineering, construction, facilities, manufacturing, logistics, energy or project environment is useful. Participants should be comfortable discussing real workplace situations and reviewing simple performance data. Prior study of ISO 45001, human factors, behavioural safety or organisational psychology is not required. The course does not require technical engineering expertise, formal audit qualifications or responsibility for an existing safety management system.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants need basic familiarity with workplace safety responsibilities, risk assessment, incident reporting or operational supervision. Formal ISO 45001 training, behavioural safety qualifications and organisational psychology study are not required.

Participants should bring a current workplace safety challenge, such as reporting quality, contractor performance, repeated incidents or supervisor consistency. They may also bring approved examples of policies, dashboards, survey results or incident findings, with sensitive information removed.

The course is designed for HSE professionals, operations leaders, supervisors, project managers and HR professionals who influence safety decisions and workforce behaviour. It is particularly useful where an organisation wants to move beyond awareness campaigns and injury-rate targets.

General HSE courses focus primarily on legal duties, hazard identification, risk assessment and management-system processes. This course concentrates on the human and organisational conditions that determine whether those processes are followed, challenged, reported and improved.

Participants leave with a culture diagnostic, leadership routines, reporting and learning methods, and a phased improvement roadmap. These can be adapted for a site, department, project, contractor arrangement or enterprise-wide HSE programme.

The first part establishes diagnosis, governance, leadership, participation and learning methods. The later modules address critical controls, contractors, investigations, measurement, change and sustainment, culminating in a completed plan presented during the capstone.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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