Safety Culture Ladder step 3

Oct 12, 2023

What does step 3 of the Safety Culture Ladder entail?

No-one would disagree that companies should always prioritise safety and that prevention is always better than cure. But how do you identify the level of safety awareness in your company? The answer is the Safety Culture Ladder. It consists of five steps: step 1 represents the lowest level of safety awareness and step 5 the highest. If you meet the requirements for step 5, safety has been fully integrated into all your business processes. In this blog, we will zoom in on step 3 of the Safety Culture Ladder. What does step 3 entail? Is compliance with step 3 mandatory? How can you arrange for your company to be certified against step 3? We will also give examples of the requirements and criteria that auditors bear in mind during the certification process.

About the Safety Culture Ladder step 3

Step 3 of the Safety Culture Ladder is defined as ‘Calculating - Safety rules are considered important'. If your company is in compliance with this SCL step, it will have determined which safety rules are important. Companies that comply with Safety Culture Ladder step 3 take responsibility but are also driven by self-interest. ‘What’s in it for me?’. Involvement in safety and compliance with rules and laws is mainly the task of (senior) management. The departments below have little to no involvement in the ‘safety’ theme.

Is the Safety Culture Ladder step 3 mandatory?

In the construction industry, working with the Safety Culture Ladder step 2 is mandatory since Jan. 1, 2022, for companies that have signed the Governance Code of Safety in Construction (GCVB). This is understandable because construction has high safety risks. Yet the Safety Culture Ladder is designed to be applicable to any organization. With a Safety Culture Ladder audit, any organization can get serious about safety.

Currently, it is not mandatory for any company to meet Safety Culture Ladder step 3. As of July 1, 2026, this will change for companies that have signed the Governance Code Safety in Construction (GCVB). Then these companies, which compete for tenders in construction, must be able to demonstrate that they comply with Safety Culture Ladder step 3. Other companies do not have to comply with Safety Culture Ladder step 3 or any other step. DEKRA will be happy to assist you with safety Safety Culture Ladder step 3 certification. Contact one of our experts.

How does the certification of Safety Culture Ladder step 3 work?

If you decide to have your company certified against step 3 of the Safety Culture Ladder, you will be able to choose between two variants: SCL Original and SCL. A certificate is issued for each of them.

There are another two variants to choose from, but you will not be issued with a certificate for either of them. These two variants are SCL Light and Approved Self Assessment. Instead you will receive a statement or document.

You can use the SAQ online questionnaire to gain an idea of the current situation in your company. The results of this self-assessment will help identify your current situation and also which step is the best for you to aim for. Once you have made this decision, you will be ready to choose a certification body (CB) to conduct an audit, like DEKRA, for example. During this audit, a number of observing project visits and interviews will take place with employees and management. If successful, you will receive a certificate for the step your company meets. Your company will then be recertified after one year. What this involves will depend on the variant you choose.

Requirements and criteria per step

Leadership and involvement

Company aspect: employee involvement 
Requirement (example): (operational) employees report risks. 
Criterion (example): (operational) employees report detected risks after applying a risk assessment shortly before commencement of their work.

Policy and strategy

Organisation and contractors

Workplace and procedures

Deviations and communication

Audits and statistics

What steps of the Safety Culture Ladder are there?

The Safety Culture Ladder is managed by NEN, the Royal Netherlands Standardization Institute. The Safety Culture Ladder lets you protect the health and well-being of your employees. Furthermore, your organization shows that it really pays attention to safety. The Safety Culture Ladder features five steps:

Step 5: Progressive
Safety is integrated fully into all business processes.
Step 4: Proactive
Safety is a high priority and is improved continuously.
Step 3: Calculating
Safety rules are considered important.
Step 2: Reactive
Safety is not a priority and only plays a role when something goes wrong.
Step 1: Pathological
Safety is not on the organization’s agenda.

Organizations can progress from Step 1 to 5 and determine the step at which they want to start. So they decide how high to set the bar. The more safely a company operates, the higher its position on the ladder. And the higher the position on the ladder, the higher their advantage in tenders will be.

DEKRA for certification Safety Culture Ladder step 3

Would you like to have your company certified for the Safety Culture Ladder Step 3? Then you can always rely on DEKRA. Request a quote via the button below. Our experienced auditors will be happy to get to work for you. They will help you demonstrate that you take safety seriously. You may even progress to steps 4 and 5 in the future. For questions, please contact one of our experts below.