Safety in the workplace is many organization’s highest priority, especially for those in high-risk, highly regulated industries. Yet many well-meaning companies – even those with an environmental, health and safety (EHS) strategy – aren’t working within a safety maturity mindset, leaving them open to serious risk. 

Safety maturity is not something ever achieved; it’s an ongoing, ever-changing journey. Finding the path toward strong safety maturity takes an organization-wide approach – and once established, it’s a road that will continue to drive a business toward a safety culture that systematically protects employees, operations and the bottom line. 

What is safety maturity?

Safety maturity is an organization’s progress toward creating a strong and proactive safety culture. This measurement, often linked to an EHS strategy, shows how well a business can integrate safety company-wide, from operations to leadership to employee mindset. 

The concept of safety maturity is linked to The Bradley Curve model, which was developed to improve safety culture in organizations. It defines several milestones in an organization’s safety maturity journey, including moving through various stages:

• Dependent: Organizations in this stage rely on safety rules, regulations and enforcement by management.
• Independent: Employees take personal responsibility for their safety.
• Interdependent: Safety is shared throughout the organization with collaboration at all levels.

While safety maturity can never be fully achieved – and must always be an ongoing, updated process – many organizations use these stages to rate their progress. The stages represent a culture-wide progression from a passive safety culture to one of ownership. The ultimate goal is to maintain a culture where safety is a shared value by all involved.  

Why safety maturity matters for any organization

The benefits of strong safety maturity directly support how well an EHS strategy is implemented at an organization. When employees are engaged and safety is built into the company culture, an organization is best able to protect employees, ensure compliance and drive long-term success. 

On the flip side, while a high level of safety maturity benefits organizations in multiple areas, those with low safety maturity are left vulnerable. Higher injury rates, increased costs, regulatory penalties, reputational damages and loss of confidence by stakeholders can all result when safety isn’t valued or properly supported at an organization. 

Read how prioritizing safety can support business outcomes in Ideagen’s “Transforming safety from a cost to a performance driver”.

How to build and improve safety maturity

Organizations ready to take their safety maturity to the next level must make it an organization-wide priority. Building a long-term safety culture needs to have buy-in from leaders as well as employees, and run throughout every vein of an organization. 

In a recent article, experts weighed in on the importance of prioritizing safety: 

“The sad truth we find as consultants is that most organizations we assess don’t have a safety strategy, and the few that do often have a conflicting production strategy that competes with safety for priority. … Organizations that achieve safety culture excellence do so strategically by targeting the changes needed and focusing the whole organization not just on the goals but also on the methodologies to achieve them.”

Achieving the interdependent level of safety maturity takes six elements. The most important four elements are:

• Strategy: Creating a roadmap and approach to building a strong safety culture.
• Leadership: Ensuring full buy-in from the top, as well as their commitment to prioritizing safety. 
• Employee engagement: Empowering employees to have ownership of workplace safety, and creating channels for them to share open communication about it. 
• Culture: Making the workplace one that holds safety as a shared value and incorporates it throughout operations, communications and decisions. 

There are also two supporting elements of building safety maturity: 

• Safety professionals: Employing and supporting EHS experts within the organization. 
• Safety metrics: Having systems and technology in place to monitor, track and analyze incidents, which helps spot trends and make changes moving ahead.

Building a safety culture takes time and usually involves making changes – but it’s never too late to start. And the result of achieving and maintaining a high level of safety maturity will resonate throughout an organization as it not only protects workers and builds an engaged culture, but in turn supports the organization's overall mission and bottom line. 

Want to learn more about how creating strong safety maturity will help your organization? Dive into the significance of a robust safety culture, and how building safety maturity can get you there, in this free Ideagen white paper “Unlocking safety maturity: A comprehensive guide to safety culture and employee engagement.”

How Ideagen EHS can help

A key element of building safety maturity lies in an organization’s EHS strategy and capabilities. Ideagen EHS offers a comprehensive solution for safety professionals seeking to elevate their organization’s safety and health programs. By seamlessly integrating safety culture and safety intelligence, Ideagen EHS enables a nuanced understanding of your safety landscape. It goes beyond incident reporting, providing the insights needed for customized training, open communication, and improved overall safety performance.

Are you ready to transform safety at your organization? Request a free demo today to see what solutions Ideagen EHS can bring to your organization.