How to assess your organisation’s Safety Culture

A strong safety culture not only prevents harm; it strengthens operational performance, builds trust, and supports long-term resilience.

One of the most recognised frameworks for understanding and measuring safety culture is the Hudson Safety Culture Ladder. This maturity model provides a practical way for organisations to identify where they are today and what they need to do to progress.

In this article, we outline how the Hudson Ladder works and how FidesOak® supports organisations in diagnosing their cultural maturity and building a more proactive, learning-focused approach to safety.

Why Safety Culture matters more than ever

Despite investments in audits, systems, and assurance processes, incidents still occur, often driven by human factors, operational pressures, or cultural blind spots. Safety culture, meaning how people act, decide, and respond to risk, determines whether a safety management system thrives or fails.

A mature safety culture enables:

• A workforce that openly reports hazards and near-misses without fear
• Leaders who set the tone through action, not slogans
• Accountability combined with fairness
• Strong organisational learning and meaningful follow-through
• A mindset that sees safety not as an add-on, but as integral to doing the job well

At FidesOak®, we help organisations move from intention to capability, using the Hudson Ladder as a practical map for cultural evolution.

The Hudson Safety Culture Ladder

Professor Patrick Hudson developed the Safety Culture Ladder after decades of research, much of it influenced by the Piper Alpha disaster in 1988, one of the most defining moments in the history of major hazard safety.

The tragedy, which claimed 167 lives, was later shown to be preventable. The inquiry highlighted failures in communication, leadership, and organisational culture. It fundamentally reshaped how the industry understands safety and the human factors that underpin it.

The Hudson Ladder outlines five levels of cultural maturity, from Pathological to Generative. As organisations climb the ladder, safety moves from a compliance conversation to part of the organisation’s identity.

Hudson Safety Culture Ladder visual overview

A simple visual representation of the cultural journey is shown below. The steps rise from Pathological on the left to Generative on the right.

1. Pathological: “Who cares as long as we’re not caught?”
   Safety is seen as a hindrance. Reporting is discouraged. Issues are blamed on individuals.
2. Reactive: “We act when things go wrong.”
   The organisation pays attention to safety, but usually after an incident. Improvements are short-lived.
3. Calculative: “We have systems and processes.”
   There are tools, procedures, checklists, and audits. The focus is on compliance, but people may not feel ownership.
4. Proactive: “We anticipate and prevent problems.”
   Leaders and teams look for risks before incidents happen. Reporting is encouraged and used constructively.
5. Generative: “Safety is how we do business.”
   Safety is integrated into strategy, operations, planning, and design. Trust is strong. Learning is continuous. People feel responsible for themselves and each other. 

How FidesOak® assesses Safety Culture

The FidesOak® Safety Culture Assessment gives organisations a clear, evidence-based picture of their cultural reality.

We combine:

• Workforce demographics
• Operational context
• Contractor representation
• Site-by-site insights
• Perceptions, behaviours, and lived experience

The result is a dashboard that reveals cultural strengths, vulnerabilities, and untapped opportunities. These insights inform targeted, actionable recommendations designed to help organisations move confidently to the next step of the Hudson Ladder.

Our approach is collaborative, practical, and grounded in operational reality, not theory alone.

How to assess your organisation

Assessing safety culture requires looking beneath procedures and paperwork. It involves understanding how people actually work, what they believe, and how decisions are made under everyday pressures.

Below is the structured approach used by FidesOak®.

Step 1: Gather evidence across the organisation

To form a genuine picture of culture, collect insights across areas such as:

• Leadership behaviour and visibility
• Reporting culture
• Learning and investigation practices
• Operational discipline
• Human factors and work environment
• Workforce involvement
• Contractor alignment
• Psychological safety and fairness

Use multiple lenses:

• Online surveys
• Focus groups
• Interviews
• Observations and walkdowns
• Incident and near-miss analysis

This builds a balanced and holistic view.

Step 2: Map your evidence to the Maturity Levels

Based on the evidence and insights gathered, review each theme against the Hudson Ladder:

• Discussion after incidents only → Reactive
• Heavy reliance on systems and documentation → Calculative
• Open, honest conversations and frequent reporting → Proactive
• Safety fully integrated into decisions → Generative

Most organisations show a mix, this is expected.

Step 3: Identify your dominant Cultural Level

Your true cultural maturity is defined by the lowest consistently demonstrated level, not the highest aspiration.

This creates your Safety Culture Maturity Profile, highlighting:

• Strengths
• Cultural gaps
• Areas of alignment and misalignment
• Opportunities for practical improvement

Step 4: Validate findings with the Workforce

Validation ensures accuracy and builds trust.

Engage:

• Frontline teams
• Supervisors
• Safety representatives
• Senior leaders

Ask: “Does this feel true to your experience?”

This step fosters shared ownership and reduces defensiveness.

Step 5: Build a targeted Cultural Improvement Plan

Different maturity levels require different actions:

Reactive → Calculative

• Improve investigation quality
• Clarify responsibilities
• Strengthen procedural consistency
• Introduce structured risk tools

Calculative → Proactive

• Increase leadership presence
• Reinforce psychological safety
• Encourage open reporting
• Improve workforce involvement in decision-making

Proactive → Generative

• Integrate safety into planning and design
• Strengthen organisational learning
• Embed human factors thinking
• Build a culture that supports innovation and resilience

FidesOak® works with leadership teams to turn insights into meaningful change.

Step 6: Reassess regularly

Culture evolves. Reassess:

• Annually
• After major organisational change
• Following significant incidents
• During mergers or acquisitions

Consistent assessment maintains momentum and accountability.

Culture is the real engine of Safety Performance

Strong safety cultures deliver fewer incidents, more predictable operations, and higher confidence among employees, contractors, and stakeholders. The Hudson Ladder is a proven framework for understanding where your organisation stands, and how to move toward a more proactive, generative culture.

At FidesOak®, we believe that building safety culture is not a one-off project, it is an ongoing commitment to excellence, integrity, and the wellbeing of your people.