Organisations track safety incidents with precision. But too often, they rely on this data to obtain a sense of confidence that they are in control of risk.

Lag indicators like TRIFR and LTIFR show you that something has gone wrong but not the severity of harm. They also don’t reveal whether your people are working in a culture that prevents harm in the first place.

It’s a difficult truth that harm isn’t always avoidable. When people are involved, there’s always the risk of error, drift, and variation. If you want to be better prepared to manage and respond to risk, then you need to measure what’s driving behaviour.

And that starts with leadership.

Why Measuring Safety Leadership Is Critical

Leadership influences culture. Culture drives behaviour. Behaviour yields results.

You can have world-class systems in place. But if leaders aren’t setting the right tone, role-modelling the right behaviours, or creating a culture of accountability and care-those systems won’t be effective.

That’s why more organisations are shifting focus to the inputs that shape outcomes – starting with how leadership drives safety performance.

The tone set at the top determines how people show up, how they manage risk, and how seriously they take safety. But without clear data, it’s difficult to know if your leaders are enabling or undermining your culture.

For many safety and operational leaders, this has been the missing piece. Leadership is still seen as a “soft skill” – hard to quantify and even harder to link to performance.

The Safety Leadership Index (SLI) is changing that.

What Is the Safety Leadership Index?

The Safety Leadership Index is a self-assessment or 180 to 360-degree leadership capability tool that measures the behaviours most critical to safety outcomes.

It assesses individual leaders across seven key dimensions:

• Leading by Example
• Setting Clear Expectations
• Involving Others
• Demonstrating Care and Commitment
• Providing Feedback
• Skills and Capability
• Learning and Improvement

Each leader receives a detailed report that compares self-perception with feedback from peers, direct reports, and senior leaders. It’s a structured way to uncover blind spots, validate strengths, and focus development.

At the organisational level, SLI data reveals leadership trends, capability gaps, and areas where targeted investment will have the most impact.

It’s not a performance review. It’s a safety leadership enabler.

Case Study: A Culture Shift at Scale

A large global beverage organisation rolled out the SLI across more than 750 leaders – from executives to frontline supervisors. Enabling the program to be customised to the needs of the leaders as well as measure and track the success of the program.

The results were transformational.

Described by many participants as the most practical and impactful development experience of their careers, the program empowered leaders with immediate, tangible actions that could be implemented straight away. These practical tools didn’t just stay in the training room, they began shaping the day-to-day safety and wellbeing culture across sites and teams through 90-day actions plans, that come with the SLI.

The leadership data gathered through the SLI enabled the organisation to identify strengths, capability gaps, and areas for targeted development. As a result, resources could be directed to the right places, and leaders were empowered with insights on why they were effective and how to help others grow.

This was not just about individuals. It was about strengthening leadership bench strength across the organisation, ensuring that high-performing leaders are supported to remain high-performing, and that others are given the tools and coaching they need to improve.

As one executive participant put it: “This isn’t just another training program. It’s a mirror, a roadmap, and a catalyst for change.”

Beyond Leadership: Tracking Cultural Impact

The organisation didn’t stop with leadership assessment.

They also implemented the Safety Culture Index (SCI) – a  diagnostic that provides detailed insight across 9 cultural dimensions and 14 key drivers of safety culture.

The SCI is fully customisable, available in over 51 languages, and adaptable to any structure or demographic profile.

By integrating SCI and SLI results, the organisation gained a clear picture of how leadership behaviours were influencing cultural perceptions—helping them identify which interventions were working and where further focus was needed.

In a sector where performance is often reviewed through lag indicators, this proactive, data-driven approach helped the organisation shift from hindsight to foresight.

They weren’t waiting for incidents.

They were building the conditions to prevent them.

From data to insight to action: Global Safety Index

Both the Safety Leadership Index (SLI) and Safety Culture Index (SCI) are powered by the Global Safety Index® – the worlds first integrated measurement tool, established over 10 years ago.

It brings together the following specific measurement tools:

• Safety leadership
• Safety culture
• Mental health literacy
• Psychosocial risk

The platform enables internal and external benchmarking, year-on-year tracking, pulse checks and system-wide insights into what’s really driving performance.

Organisations use the Global Safety Index to:

Both SLI and SCI are powered by the Global Safety Index®—the world’s first integrated measurement platform for human-centred safety performance.

For over a decade, the platform has brought together research backed and validated tools that measure:

• Safety leadership
• Safety culture
• Mental health literacy
• Psychosocial risk

It enables internal and external benchmarking, year-on-year tracking, pulse checks, and system-wide insight.

Organisations use the Global Safety Index to:

• Build safer, higher-performing teams
• Monitor the effectiveness of strategies and controls
• Measure progress in reducing mental health stigma and supporting help-seeking behaviours
• Understand psychosocial risks and how well they’re being controlled
• Demonstrate due diligence with credible, evidence-based data

What Leaders Should Ask

If you’re responsible for safety performance, ask yourself:

• Are we measuring leadership capability—or just hoping it improves?
• Are our development programs informed by data?
• Can we track the impact of leadership on culture and performance?
• Do we have confidence that we’re in control of our risk profile?

If the answer is no, you’re not alone. Specific Insights require specific tools and those tools now exist.

Article attributed to

Luke Beeston, Group Director Client Solutions, HSE Global and Managing Director, Global Safety Index

Emily Turner, Sales & Marketing Advisor, HSE Global