To what extent does your organization demonstrate its commitment to employee health and safety through a  formalized, written safety policy, signed and articulated by a key executive?

How well does your organization link workplace safety directly to its strategic plan?

How effective is your Safety Coordinator as relates to the oversight and implementation of workplace safety programs and procedures?

To what degree has your organization established an ongoing relationship with safety and health consultants capable of advising on day-to-day issues and problems and providing solutions and prevention strategies associated with workplace safety?

To what extent are your workplace and organizational compliance programs evaluated on a regular basis by outside risk management consultants who have additional expertise?

How effective are your workplace evaluations at determining employee exposures to workplace contaminants, and reducing or eliminating exposures for affected employees? Programs include hearing conservation programs, respiratory protection programs, medical surveillance, etc.

To what extent are employees at every level in the organization held responsible and accountable for safety? At higher levels, this accountability is results-oriented (i.e., financial and operational), and at lower levels it is activity- and task-oriented.

How well do top-level managers demonstrate consistent, active involvement and serve as a motivational force in the safety effort?

How effective is senior management at assigning responsibility and accountability for developing and implementing programs to supervisors as well as assuring organizational compliance with relevant OSHA, DOT, EPA standards? 

How efficient is your organization in soliciting employee feedback on workplace safety and the current culture of safety, through periodic surveys?  

How effective is management at investigating workplace incidents and near misses to establish root causes, identifying corrective actions, bringing these incidents to closure, and documenting the process?

How effective are your processes and procedures in identifying and eliminating workplace hazards?

How well does your organization use job hazard analyses (JHAs) to review all hazardous tasks carried out on-site by employees, contractors or visitors?

How effective is your organization’s employee orientation program in informing new employees about the organization’s safety expectations, policies and procedures; and how to be actively involved in safety efforts?

How well does the organization train supervisors and managers on current safety practices, company safety policies, and procedures; and, keep them are informed when revisions to these occur?

How effective are your organization’s systems to ensure that all employees are trained in job-specific safety practices, and that retraining occurs as required by external or internal standards?

To what degree do job descriptions detail safety-related responsibilities and are safety performance standards integrated into your organization’s performance management system?

How effective are your organization’s performance reviews at supporting the responsibilities and accountabilities each employee has for safety-related objectives and practices?

How well has your organization adopted safety benchmarks and goals, which include leading indicators?

How effective is your organization’s workers’ compensation and employers’ liability insurance at positively impacting and/or consistently maintaining the Experience Modification Factor (EMF) at an acceptable level?

How effective are your managers in reviewing and comparing workplace incidents to industry or corporate benchmarks and trends?

To what degree do you have a program in place that specifies contractor and visitor safety procedures which ensure that exposures and hazards created by contractors are mitigated, and no employee processes increase organizational liability while contractors are on-site?

How effective is your organization in reviewing (at least annually) an established, comprehensive emergency preparedness and action plan to identify potential issues and actions such as the drills carried out?