Safety Leadership Visits: A Tool to Increase Management Engagement in Safety Issues

The Illusion of Leadership: Why Managers and Workers See Safety Differently

The development of a safety culture inevitably encounters cognitive bias at the management level. Internal research by the TVEL Fuel Company (Rosatom State Corporation) revealed a critical gap: 86% of managers considered themselves safety leaders who foster an atmosphere of openness. However, only 45% of employees agreed with this. This imbalance showed that managers do not always understand the difference between administrative control and true leadership, which should inspire and guide.

Vyacheslav Kozlov, Director of the Nuclear, Radiation, Industrial Safety and Environment Department at TVEL JSC, analyzes the process of transforming the management approach in detail. The presentation shows how the company moved from declarative statements to the systematic cultivation of leadership at all management levels of a multi-thousand workforce.

From Behavioral Audits to Leadership Visits

Behavioral safety audits (BSA) or observations remain a traditional tool for identifying unsafe acts. Last year alone, more than 8,000 such observations were conducted at TVEL enterprises. However, for top management — enterprise directors and top managers of the management company — the speaker suggests using a different format: safety leadership visits (SLV).

The key difference between an SLV and a standard observation lies in goal-setting:

• Observation is aimed at identifying organizational factors that contribute to errors and recording non-conformities.
• Leadership visit is aimed at demonstrating management commitment. Its task is not to find a violation, but to build an open dialogue, convey expectations to the employee, and show that it is possible to talk about problems without fear of punishment.

Visit Architecture: How to Avoid Formalism

To prevent the visit from turning into a routine walk-through for production control purposes, a clear methodology was developed. The speaker demonstrates by example that a top manager does not go to the site alone, but as part of a cross-functional team. It includes a safety culture manager, a department head, as well as representatives of the trade union or youth committee. This reduces the risk of the procedure being a mere formality.

The central element of the visit is a dialogue about safety. Vyacheslav Kozlov emphasizes the importance of conducting the conversation along the emotional cycle curve. The conversation cannot end at the stage of the employee's negative emotions. The manager must guide the employee through risk awareness to planning safe actions, so that in the end the employee feels satisfied that their suggestions have been heard and will be implemented.

Integration into HR Processes and Contractor Management

Leadership visits do not exist in a vacuum — they are integrated into the overall personnel assessment system. The company has implemented an annual assessment of managers based on the "Safety" value (including the 360-degree feedback method for the talent pool). Low scores on this criterion directly affect career prospects: appointments to new positions may be delayed, and in critical cases, the issue of unsuitability for the current position is considered.

Special attention in the presentation is paid to broadcasting these requirements to contracting organizations. A strict system of fines (up to 3 million rubles for an accident) combined with mandatory occupational safety agreements has led to the injury rate among contractors being even lower than that of regular staff.

What You Will Learn from This Webinar:

• What is the fundamental difference between production control, a behavioral audit, and a safety leadership visit?
• How to properly build a dialogue with an employee on site so that they do not perceive the management visit as a threat?
• How do the results of safety commitment assessments affect the career tracks and motivation of top managers?
• How can informal leaders who sabotage the rules be turned into safety culture ambassadors?
• How do digitalization and BI dashboards help analyze observation results and manage systemic deviations?