Safety Leadership Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Operations Managers, Health and Safety Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-OHS-044

Before you join: Participants should have working experience of occupational health and safety responsibilities, such as supervising work, managing teams, supporting safety systems or advising operational leaders.

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 performance is shaped by operational decisions, supervisory behaviours and the quality of conversations held before work starts. Leaders must set clear expectations, act on reported concerns, challenge weak controls and make sound decisions when production pressure conflicts with safe work. This course addresses the gap between written safety systems and the day-to-day leadership needed to prevent serious injuries, occupational ill health and high-potential incidents.

Participants examine the leadership accountabilities, risk-control methods and assurance practices expected of managers and senior safety practitioners. They work with ISO 45001, HSG65 Plan-Do-Check-Act, Bowtie analysis, incident learning methods and safety culture diagnostics. The course develops practical capability in setting safety expectations, conducting field leadership conversations, reviewing risk controls, leading incident reviews, managing contractor interfaces and using performance data to direct action.

Teaching combines short instructor briefings with sector-based cases from construction, manufacturing, energy, logistics, public services and office-based operations. Participants analyse leadership decisions, practise difficult safety conversations, review incident evidence and build action plans from realistic operating scenarios. They leave with a personal safety leadership action plan, a field engagement checklist, a risk-control assurance model and practical templates for incident learning and safety performance review.

The course suits managers, supervisors, safety professionals and operational leaders who already work with occupational health and safety responsibilities and need stronger methods for influencing safe work.

What you will be able to do

  • Apply ISO 45001 leadership requirements to define safety accountabilities and decision rights
  • Conduct structured field safety conversations using observation, questioning and feedback techniques
  • Assess critical risk controls using Bowtie barriers and verification criteria
  • Interpret leading and lagging indicators to identify safety performance priorities
  • Lead learning-focused incident reviews using evidence, causal analysis and corrective actions
  • Develop contractor safety governance arrangements for selection, mobilisation and work control
  • Facilitate safety culture discussions that address trust, reporting and production pressure
  • Produce a 90-day safety leadership action plan with measures and review points

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Greater confidence challenging unsafe decisions made under production pressure
  • Practical language for discussing risk with frontline teams and senior managers
  • Stronger capability to distinguish weak controls from verified critical controls
  • A structured approach for leading fair, evidence-based incident reviews
  • A credible 90-day plan for improving personal safety leadership practice

For your organisation

  • Clearer management accountability for safety decisions and critical risk controls
  • Earlier identification of control failures through better field engagement
  • More useful incident investigations focused on learning and corrective action quality
  • Improved contractor oversight at mobilisation, work interfaces and performance review
  • Safety performance measures linked to management action and governance reviews

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can define leadership responsibilities, decision rights and governance arrangements for occupational health and safety.

  • Legal duty-holder roles, due diligence, and accountable safety decision rights
  • ISO 45001 leadership, consultation, competence and continual-improvement requirements
  • HSG65 Plan-Do-Check-Act applied to safety system governance
  • Visible felt leadership behaviours distinguished from inspection and enforcement activity
  • Worker consultation routes, safety committees and representative participation rights
  • Leading and lagging indicators linked to management review decisions

Participants can identify cultural influences on safety and use leadership behaviours that strengthen reporting and trust.

  • Safety culture dimensions: trust, justice, reporting, learning and accountability
  • Production pressure signals that encourage rule-bending and risk normalisation
  • Just culture principles for fair responses to human error
  • Psychological safety practices supporting hazard reporting and speaking up
  • Safety climate surveys interpreted alongside field observations and incident data
  • Leader role-modelling assessed through decisions, language, priorities and follow-through

Participants can prioritise major hazards and verify that critical controls are present and effective.

  • Critical risk criteria based on credible worst-case consequences and exposure
  • Bowtie analysis linking threats, preventive barriers, recovery measures and consequences
  • Control effectiveness tests using design, implementation and operational performance evidence
  • Critical control performance standards written with observable verification criteria
  • Field verification questions for isolation, work at height and vehicle controls
  • Escalation thresholds when critical controls are absent, degraded or bypassed

Participants can conduct purposeful field engagements that identify risk, reinforce controls and encourage reporting.

  • Safety walkaround preparation using risk history, work plans and exposure data
  • Open questioning techniques that reveal work-as-done and control gaps
  • Observation versus interpretation during task monitoring and workplace engagement
  • SBI feedback method for specific, respectful safety performance conversations
  • Stop-work authority communicated through clear escalation and response expectations
  • Closing field engagements with agreed actions, owners, dates and feedback loops

Participants can lead proportionate incident reviews that identify learning and improve control reliability.

  • Incident classification based on actual harm and credible potential severity
  • Immediate response priorities: care, scene preservation, notification and evidence capture
  • ICAM causal analysis separating absent defences, actions and organisational factors
  • Five Whys used carefully without reducing systemic failures to worker blame
  • Evidence interviews structured around task conditions, decisions and work constraints
  • Corrective actions tested for ownership, control strength, deadlines and verification

Participants can use safety data and assurance findings to direct management attention and action.

  • Leading indicators selected for critical controls, learning and workforce participation
  • Lagging indicators interpreted with exposure, severity and reporting context
  • Safety dashboards separating activity counts from control effectiveness measures
  • Trend analysis using rates, run charts and meaningful comparison periods
  • Assurance plans combining self-checks, supervisor verification and independent reviews
  • Management review packs linking findings, decisions, resources and action closure

Participants can establish contractor safety expectations and oversee risk controls at work interfaces.

  • Prequalification criteria covering competence, incident history and safety management arrangements
  • Tender safety evaluations testing critical risk capability beyond policy statements
  • Mobilisation meetings confirming roles, interfaces, permits and escalation routes
  • Shared risk registers for simultaneous operations and changing site conditions
  • Contractor performance reviews using field evidence, control verification and learning
  • Consequences and recognition applied consistently through contract governance processes

Participants can lead safety through operational change while managing competing commercial and delivery demands.

  • Management of change triggers: people, plant, process, workload and environment
  • Change impact assessments identifying new hazards, control changes and competence needs
  • Pre-start readiness reviews before commissioning altered equipment or work methods
  • Decision-making under pressure using risk tolerance and escalation boundaries
  • Fatigue, workload and staffing signals affecting control reliability and human performance
  • Communication plans explaining changed controls, accountabilities and stop-work criteria

Participants can make leadership decisions during emergencies and manage follow-up after high-potential events.

  • Emergency command roles, authority limits and incident communication channels
  • Initial leadership decisions balancing life safety, site control and information quality
  • High-potential event criteria based on credible escalation and consequence pathways
  • Crisis communications principles for workers, families, regulators and senior leaders
  • Post-event welfare support, return-to-work considerations and workforce communication
  • Learning reviews after emergency exercises, near misses and actual events

Participants can create a measurable safety leadership plan for their role and operating priorities.

  • Personal leadership baseline assessed against accountability, visibility and follow-through behaviours
  • Priority risks selected using consequence, exposure, control confidence and performance evidence
  • Ninety-day action plans structured around actions, owners, measures and review dates
  • Stakeholder mapping for frontline teams, contractors, peers and executive sponsors
  • Communication commitments defining safety messages, listening channels and feedback routines
  • Monthly review cadence for actions, indicators, barriers and course correction

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

What you take back to work

  1. Personal 90-day safety leadership action plan
  2. Critical control verification checklist
  3. Field safety conversation guide
  4. Bowtie barrier analysis template
  5. Incident learning review template
  6. Safety performance dashboard model

Who should attend

  • Operations Managers — need to balance production decisions with critical risk control
  • Health and Safety Managers — need stronger leadership methods beyond compliance administration
  • Supervisors and Team Leaders — direct work teams and influence daily safe behaviours
  • Project Managers — coordinate contractors, changing risks and delivery pressures
  • Senior Managers — hold accountability for safety governance and resource decisions
  • Safety Advisors — support managers with assurance, incident learning and performance evidence

Skills and tools covered

Safety leadershipCritical risk assuranceIncident learningSafety cultureContractor governancePerformance measurement

Tools and standards

ISO 45001, HSG65 Plan-Do-Check-Act, Bowtie analysis, ICAM

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short briefings to introduce standards, leadership methods and decision tools, followed by facilitated case work drawn from operational settings. Participants assess incident evidence, test Bowtie barriers, interpret safety data and practise field leadership conversations. Group exercises examine competing priorities, contractor interfaces and reporting barriers. A safety leadership simulation is used to test response choices after a high-potential event. Each participant builds an application plan linked to their own role, risks and reporting lines.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have working experience of occupational health and safety responsibilities, such as supervising work, managing teams, supporting safety systems or advising operational leaders. They should understand basic hazard identification, risk assessment and control measures, and be familiar with their organisation's incident reporting arrangements. Prior experience with ISO 45001, formal auditing, Bowtie analysis or safety culture surveys is useful but not required. This is not an introductory health and safety course and does not teach technical control design for specialist hazards.

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 should already understand basic workplace hazards, risk assessments and their organisation's safety arrangements. Experience as a manager, supervisor, project lead or safety practitioner is expected; formal ISO 45001 training is not required.

Bring examples of recurring safety issues, current performance measures or anonymised incident themes from your workplace. Participants may also bring their organisation's safety policy, critical risk standards or contractor arrangements if these can be shared appropriately.

It is designed for people who influence work planning, resource decisions, supervision or safety governance. It is particularly relevant where teams work with contractors, high-risk tasks, changing conditions or significant production pressure.

General courses focus on hazard awareness, legal duties and basic risk assessment. This course concentrates on leadership behaviours, critical control assurance, incident learning, culture and management decision-making.

Participants leave with templates and a 90-day action plan linked to their role. They can use these materials for field engagements, management reviews, incident learning sessions and critical control checks.

Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. Time is divided between instructor input, case analysis, group work, practical simulations and structured application planning.

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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