Sorry this is going to be one of those “well it depends”, sort of answers…

Factors to include:

• Number of staff- generally the more staff the more complex the  issues relating to H&S
• Diversity of staff- if they are all office works or all warehouse workers or all drivers then the sort of questions can reflect that. On the other hand your organisation might be very diverse with no two job descriptions the same, which means there will be a diversity of views and H&S cultures across the organisation.
• How geographically diverse you are; again the different areas are likely to have  different views with some parts feeling left out and unloved by the “centre”

You also need to look at the sort of information that you want. You could just ask “Health and Safety is ok here- Agree or disagree. “  ,or you could start looking at what staff really think about the organisation, it’s management and it H&S approach. Note that you might need a thick skin and, of course, the answers that you get might not be what you (or your management) want to hear.

One of the advantages of the SCT(Safety Climate Tool-HSL proprietory safety software) is that the system guarantees anonymity for respondents. Others included the ease of by which you can manage any data that comes out of the process.  The questions you should be asking should come under these headings

1. Organisational Commitment.
2. Health and Safety oriented behaviours.
3. Health and Safety Trust.
4. Usability of procedures.
5. Engagement in health and Safety.
6. Peer group attitude.
7. Resources for health and safety.
8. Accident and Near miss reporting.

A professional survey package, is designed to ask these questions in several different ways and takes into account that might just answer the questions randomly.

At my last place we decided to use the SCT  after looking at running a survey with SurveyMonkey as you got more than, just questions and answers but a basic analysis of what is going on as well.

Edited by user 13 February 2017 09:24:32(UTC)  | Reason: Define SCT

Kate

A well-designed survey can provide invaluable data for boosting the standard of leadership and followership about safety.  The HSL survey, derived from a major study in the chemical sector, is far from ideal for many, however.  Yet  as you haven't stated the specific reasons for your proposed safety climate survey, it's problematic being specific in reply but here are a couple of pointers.

Colin Pilbeam and his colleagues at Cranfield University carried out a survey on safety in retail and warehouse organisations; it was commissioned by the IOSH and their report is available free on this website.  As youi can see, they indicated how social network analysis diagrams present indicators of the conduct of safety leadership in the sector surveyed.

There are a list of papers on researrch into safety climate and thinking of directors about safety,  published by research psychologists at the University of Aberdeen.  The list is available on the page about one of the research team, Laura Fruhen, at her current place of work in the University of Western Australia.  Rigourous, clear and incisive.  She also makes available a 'White Paper' on safety which makes excellent reading

Originally Posted by: ke5283

Hi, thanks for the replies. A friend sent me a copy of the HSL questions and I agree the HSL survey questions don't really fit my organisation. We are a housing organisation with a contracting arm. What is the SCT ? I haven't come across this yet. I will bear in mind the topics you have provided Kurdziel. Thanks.

SCT - Safety Climate Tool, the name normally given to safety surveys.