The «Safe Five»
The Safe Five Model
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In high reliability organizations, a chain of even the smallest errors can have significant implications. For this reason, these organisations consistently design their processes in such ways that errors are identified early and either quickly amended or actually prevented. This places high demands on technology, organisation, and personnel.
At this point we asked ourselves what specific competencies make people in security-sensitive environments able to act reliably. Extensive research combined with our special expertise led us to five competencies that we call the ‘Safe Five’.
«Safe Five» Competencies
- Situation awareness: maintain an overview and be ready to act at all times
Perceive the relevant objects and aspects of a situation consciously and fully. Based on a holistic understanding in view of the current situation and prediction of the further course, ensure your own readiness for action. - Conformity to rules: act following guidelines/plans
Personal commitment of an individual to rules, norms, and values. But also awareness of the given room to manoeuvre, so that in the crucial moment you do not adhere to rules too strictly but instead take action appropriate to the situation. - Critical attitude: high degree of self-reflection in order not to overlook errors
Think through a situation on own initiative with a focus on details, and regularly question organisational conditions, context factors, and work processes so as to avoid simplistic interpretations. - Readiness to take a stand: be actively involved, so that you can point out dangerous system states
Overcome personal obstacles and organizational hurdles through clear and self-confident communication even in the face of resistance in order to be heard regarding the most appropriate solution. - Capability in an emergency: take targeted action in unfamiliar contexts
Made decisions and take action in very demanding or uncertain situations under time pressure and pressure to act to work towards a safe and stable system status within a useful time frame.
Competence levels
To apply the competence model in the workplace, we defined four competence levels:
- Beginners are faced with performing clearly specified activities in easily handled situations.
- Professionals have task responsibility and carry out tasks independently in familiar contexts.
- Seniors take on system responsibility in a management function in new or extraordinary contexts.
- Experts are responsible for developing concepts and procedures and for overall management in extreme situations. Experts typically take up their safety-related task only in the event of an incident.
We developed a short questionnaire to assess the safety-related requirements. For each competency of the Safe Five, the required job- or function-specific characteristics can then be determined. We also developed a collection of interview questions to capture the Safe Five in structured interviews.
Safe Five can be used in a variety of organisations with high security requirements, such as security, protection, and rescue organisations; health facilities; transportation services and traffic control systems (road, rail, water, or air); health organisations; nuclear power plants; the chemical or large-scale industry; or even the armed forces. Safe Five can also be used by organisations that have very high compliance needs or where damage to data protection, finances, or reputation is possible. Finally, Safe Five is also for organisations that are interested in reducing or ruling out damage and negative repercussions due to human behaviour.
The Safe Five model, in combination with the dynamics of an event or incident, opens up the possibility to define competence requirements in different phases or states of an organisation in the context of an incident occurring.
