Safety culture – a reflection of risk awareness
In co-operation with the Institute of Work Psychology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Swiss Re has investigated the question of how a company’s safety culture may be appraised.
An insurer knows that safety depends less on the technology than on management systems and the safety awareness of the employees.
It depends on the way a company handles risk: in other words, on its safety culture. It is not the insurer's job to pass judgement on a safety culture of individual companies, but to set up communities of insured. This, however, involves evening out recognisable imbalances, either through selection, or the pricing and design of cover, or by consulting with the insured.
This publication calls attention to the importance of safety culture and attempts to answer questions as to how it can be appraised and influenced.
