Climate Assessment Survey System (CASS).

You have just assumed command and would like to get a sense of the work ethic, safety climate, and other issues impacting the unit's operational effectiveness. Your organization has probably undergone several changes over the last few months--perhaps personnel turnover, high operational tempo, lack of desired resources, morale concerns, and a few off-duty recreational incidents.

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As such, you would like to measure the success of the current, long-standing, safety programs. Is your organization's safety climate improving, stagnant, or declining? Which safety-related issues concern your personnel? What do they believe are the organization's strengths or weaknesses?

There are several methods to accomplish the daunting task of measuring organizational safety climate. Typically, leaders rely upon traditional approaches, such as staff feedback, select performance measures, and personal observations. However, another proven safety tool is now available to assist you in this task--the web-based Climate Assessment Survey System (CASS). See Figure 1. Currently in use by the Army, Navy, and Air Force, this tool provides a suite of surveys that give key organizational leaders rapid access to their members' anonymous perceptions regarding operational and safety issues. This on-line survey process is invaluable to leaders who desire one-on-one personalized feedback, measurable results, and suggested intervention options. CASS can be viewed at: https://www.SemperFiSurveys.org.

Background

Based upon high reliability organization (HRO) theory pioneered by Dr. Karleen Roberts from University of California Berkeley, these on-line surveys analyze key organizational attributes that lead to successful risk reduction in hazardous operations, to include:

* Process Auditing--a system of on-going checks to identify and correct safety issues