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Effective health and safety management depends upon the safety leadership skills of supervisors and managers, as they determine the extent to which safety rules and procedures are adhered to in reality. Supervisors and managers also act as the interface between senior management and the workforce and are therefore the prime medium for communication. There are three core elements to effective safety leadership, namely: acting as a role model, motivating staff to behave safely and monitoring performance.

An applied research project for the UK Health and Safety Executive and three offshore oil companies revealed that the key attitudes and behaviours required for effective safety leadership include:

• Valuing subordinates
• Visiting the worksite frequently
• Facilitation of work group participation in decision making
• Effective safety communication