It Starts with Culture

Give your team valuable insight into your safety culture! Ensure industry-leading safety behavior, above and beyond baseline compliance, is practiced on your railroad by scheduling a Safety Culture Assessment (SCA).

The SCA is conducted onsite by a team of SLSI professionals and combines an online employee survey, onsite employee interviews, safety documents reviews and field observations.

At the conclusion of the SCA, railroad management will receive an in-depth evaluation of the safety culture on their railroad, reviewed using the Ten Core Elements of a Strong Safety Culture, as adopted by the Department of Transportation’s Safety Council.

In addition, the SLSI team will provide resources and tools to address areas of opportunity on the railroad.

An Assessment is:

      • Voluntary
      • Non-punitive
      • Confidential
      • Free of charge

Results

Multiple studies published by the Federal Railroad Administration’s Office of Research, Development and Technology show railroads that have completed a SCA and implemented SLSI-provided opportunities have demonstrated safety culture growth. SLSI is committed to continuous review of its assessment process. Results of these studies and other analysis can be found on SLSI’s Research page.

Next Steps

The assessment is the beginning of the journey – take advantage of the Short Line Safety Institute’s 700+ years of railroad safety experience to provide follow up guidance, or technical assistance on a specific challenge.

Technical Assistance

SLSI offers technical assistance to railroads that are looking to implement changes with the goal of strengthening their safety culture. Examples of assistance include activities such as designing a safety action plan, engaging in strategies to improve safety communications, and offering assistance in building the structure and functionality of a safety committee.

SLSI’s industry experts can provide technical assistance, tailored to meet the needs of the requesting railroad, in person or remotely. Contact SLSI to discuss how our team can help you.

Follow-up Assessment

A follow-up assessment may be requested by railroads that participated in an initial Safety Culture Assessment, providing the opportunity to re-examine their safety culture. A follow-up assessment establishes a new baseline for the railroad, identifies improvements made since the original assessment and identifies new opportunities to continue improving the safety culture on the railroad.

If your railroad has already completed an SCA, contact SLSI to schedule a follow-up assessment.

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Safety Culture Assessment

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Safety Culture Assessment Request Form

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Four Key Railroad Best Practices

Based on assessments, high performance railroads exhibit four key practices.

Top management visibly supports safety

The importance of leadership in fostering a strong safety culture is indicated by the fact that almost all safety culture models explicitly mention leadership’s commitment to safety. Leaders across all layers of a railroad must model safety-first attitudes and behaviors. Employees learn what the accepted practices are on a railroad by following the examples set by its leaders. This may be illustrated by leadership ensuring that safety is prioritized over competing demands in such documents as mission and vision statements, participation in safety briefings, participating in safety committee meetings and making business decisions that consistently prioritize safety.

Training is continuous

Those who manage and operate the system must have current knowledge about the human, technical, organizational and environmental factors that determine the safety of the system as a whole. With any changes in operations practices, staff changes or new business being developed by the railroads, continuous training should be considered. Training can be delivered in a variety of formats, such as in person or via webinars and conferences.

Employees are empowered to act safely

Empowerment is ensuring that employees have the skills, knowledge, resources and authority to make safe choices within an acceptable range of options. Strengthening empowerment throughout the railroad could foster a safety culture in which employees and managers feel personally responsible for making decisions about safety.

No safety shortcuts are allowed

Railroads with a strong safety culture will consistently choose safety over performance when faced with the choice of cutting corners to increase performance. Training, empowering and consistently monitoring employees’ rules conformance can reduce the risk of employee work practices coming uncoupled from the railroad’s written rules and standards.

Top to bottom, all are committed to everyone working safely, and having a workplace that is free from accidents.