A Collaborative Approach to Safety Culture Change: Network Rail and our Trade Unions

Network Rail is part way through a journey from an under-reporting and trust- less culture towards one where everyone has a voice and role in being safe. The organisational solution for cultural change simultaneously works on... [ view full abstract ]

Network Rail is part way through a journey from an under-reporting and trust- less culture towards one where everyone has a voice and role in being safe. The organisational solution for cultural change simultaneously works on leadership and bottom-up engagement, progresses through developing middle management to allow flow of learning and then onto systemic management to ensure strong safety controls throughout the organisation and embeds the concept of continuous improvement.
Seven steps towards safety maturity for individual, system and processes changes (based on the work of James Reason) are development of:
A fair culture- describes expectations and agrees the consequences for the organisation. This is a critical first step where the organisation makes a commitment to change and describes the process and systems that will embed this change. Unions were pivotal in developing our fair culture behaviours and processes and have been essential in holding us to account and gaining the engagement of the staff
A risk aware culture- to be part of the change everyone needs to understand the risks and consequences of staying as they are and the benefits of the change- what’s in it for me. In high hazard industries serious accidents are rare, but catastrophic, and thus challenging people to believe they are at risk is difficult. The Trade Unions have been critical in gaining front-line commitment and belief that they can make a difference, and impact though initiatives such as the Slips,Trips and Falls workshops.
A willingly compliant culture - NR had huge numbers of rules to ensure safety- but this has stopped people thinking and keeping themselves safe. Our Life Saving Rules were written to start a simplification process and to enable people to build up thinking and ownership, and to experience Fair Culture investigations when issues arise. Without the commitment of the TU representatives in raising issues and supporting staff to be open and honest, many issues would still be hidden.
A reporting culture- as openness and honesty increase, alongside trust in management and the business (fair culture), individuals risk speaking up when they see problems and even when they make mistakes. As the staff’s confidants, TU reps are uniquely placed to support and encourage reporting and to challenge managers to respond appropriately.
A learning culture- by encouraging staff and mangers to have different types of conversations, and often acting as a bridge, TU reps are enabling NR to learn and continually improve. To do this effectively, they too have needed to be open and willing to learn new skills.
An involved culture –the way both front-line staff and senior leaders are working in NR is changing. Throughout the business, people see themselves as responsible for keeping each other safe- th e unions are now helping us work with office-based staff to understand their accountability to lead safety too
An innovative culture- the TU reps are working alongside us to help people hear new ideas and to maintain staff engagement even when those ideas may need to be rejected.