The Safety Culture Ladder: the four variants

Jun 30, 2023

The object of the Safety Culture Ladder (SCL) is to measure awareness, attitudes and behaviour in respect of safety in companies. It encourages companies to actively promote safety in the workplace. There are four SCL variants: SCL Original, SCL, SCL Light and Approved Self Assessment.

Certifying your company against the SCL Original and SCL enables you to demonstrate which step of the Safety Culture Ladder applies at your company. The last two variants are intended for companies that want an accessible start on the SCL. No certificates are issued for either of them but a statement instead. If you want to get started on the SCL, the first thing to do will be decide which variant you will choose. It will be handy for you to have some guidelines to help you make an informed choice, which is why we will take a look at the four SCL variants and what they mean in this blog.

The four SCL variants

If you want an SCL Original certificate, your company will have a full audit every year. You will engage a certification body (CB) to conduct the initial audit for the step for which you want to certify your company against. Before doing this, you could use the online SAQ questionnaire to gain an idea of your current situation. A summary of the steps follows below: 

5. Progressive 
Safety has been fully integrated into all business processes. 

4. Proactive 
Safety has great priority and is continually improved. 

3. Calculating 
Safety rules are considered important. 

2. Reactive 
Any change in behaviour is ad-hoc and temporary. 

1. Pathological 
‘Ignorance is bliss.’ 

Besides observing project visits, the SCL Original audit also involves interviews with management and employees. If the audit is successful, you will receive a certificate from the CB. 

An audit will need to be conducted by a CB if you opt for the SCL variant. The first audit will be a full audit and the next two, annual audits will be 40% audits. Like SCL Original, the audits will involve observing project visits and interviews with management and employees. The difference is that a 40% audit is short and audits less. Here too, you can use the online SAQ questionnaire to get an idea of how you are doing in advance. If your company passes the audit, the CB will issue a certificate to you. 

The SCL Light variant does not involve a full audit. The process starts with a 40% audit, which is then followed by two annual checks on the action plan you draw up after the first year. When checking the action plan, the auditor makes an inventory of the extent to which you have achieved your ambitions from the previous year. So, you will need a CB for SCL Light too. If successful, you will be issued with a statement (not a certificate) that provides a step indication for your company.

The Approved Self Assessment (ASA) consists solely of a self-assessment aided by the online Self Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ). To use this web tool, you will need to take out a subscription on the SCL website. In the two years following the self-assessment, an auditor from the CB will audit the action plan you put together after completing the questionnaire. The auditor will also visit your company to check the extent to which you have completed the steps required in the Approved Self Assessment. You will sit down with him/her to review the steps taken, the results achieved and the action plan. No certificate or statement will be issued after the audit. Instead, the CB will issue you with a document verifying that you have followed the steps required.

Certification against the Safety Culture Ladder

The SCL is compulsory in some cases. Compliance with step 2 has been mandatory in the context of construction tenders since 2022. Compliance with step 3 will become mandatory in 2025. When companies work with the SCL variant, it is important that their suppliers do the same. They can even make this a condition of their (continued) collaboration. DEKRA is one of the CBs you could approach to arrange an SCL audit. Our experts have extensive experience of the SCL and will be happy to take care of everything for you. Feel free to contact us for more information. Alternatively, request a quotation now.

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