Employers

CAAT is a Climate Assessment and Audit Tool that assesses health and safety management systems in the existing culture of an organization. CAAT provides valuable information by examining health and safety maturity factors that have measurable impact on health and safety outcomes.

Health and safety ecosystem describes how health and safety management systems and culture interact and influence one another.

Safety culture is built and sustained over time. Safety climate is a snapshot of perceptions at one particular moment in time.

A consistently positive safety climate impacts safety culture, because positive behaviours and attitudes are reinforced. If the safety culture is strong, the safety climate will show  positive feedback received from surveys and other measurements of safety perceptions. In terms of CAAT, climate is assessed to help understand the current atmosphere throughout the organization.

CAAT allows employers to change the way they look at and manage health and safety by identifying the current perceptions around how employees feel, think, and behave regarding health and safety at the workplace.

CAAT classifies and profiles health and safety factors that contribute to the safety culture of the workplace, so WorkplaceNL can create a customized, effective action plan for your organization. The CAAT report identifies the most impactful steps to address health and safety effectively , while guiding your organization to continuous improvement.

CAAT Essentials measure the six main factors that affect workplace health and safety: leadership, risk management, resources, loss mitigation, training, and competency.

CAAT Essentials provides a more basic look at the health and safety of your organization. CAAT Essential is a great starting point for small organizations without full health and safety programs.

CAAT IRS measures ten health and safety factors: leadership commitment and vision, hazard management, communication, responsibilities and empowerment, training and competency, responsiveness and support, participation and consultation, safety representative support, loss mitigation, and integrated risk management.

If you would like a comprehensive look at the health and safety management systems and the current safety climate of your organization, the CAAT IRS gives more information CAAT IRS is recommended if you have a full health and safety program.

CAAT assessments have no cost to the employer. A trained WorkplaceNL health and safety advisor will be assigned to work with your organization free of charge to help you in objectively assessing the health and safety management systems, in parallel with the current safety culture.

Any costs associated with implementing recommendations of the CAAT report are are the responsibility of the employer. Your WorkplaceNL health and safety advisor continues to be available to provide support at no cost.

While CAAT and PRIME contain some similar elements, both assessments are completely independent of each other. An organization that is successful in the PRIME program will be better prepared for the health and safety systems component of CAAT.

Email safety@workplacenl.ca, or contact your WorkplaceNL health and safety advisor directly to arrange your CAAT assessment.

The length of the assessment depends on the size of your organization. To minimize the impact of the assessment on the workplace, some of the assessment (such as the documentation review) is done before the WorkplaceNL advisor goes to your workplace. The assessment duration is approximately one week, with only 2-3 days at the audit site.

The CAAT report includes an action plan to reach the goal of workplace health and safety excellence by:

1. Measuring the current state – Identify how people feel, think, and behave about health and safety issues.
2. Providing a realistic report – Measure how people think about safety, and whether those thoughts are the same or different from the organization’s policies and procedures.
3. Taking a 360-degree approach – Understand the people and practices that contribute to workplace safety culture.
4. Targeting solutions: Create an effective action plan unique to your company.
5. Guiding you though a journey: There are five stages of safety culture, starting with basic compliance leading all the way to thriving and prospering.
6. Helping to meet your goal of workplace health and safety excellence – Create practices that allow your organization to re-assess and measure improvements over time. 

Your CAAT report is generated electronically.  You will be given confidential log-in information within two weeks of completing the assessment, that will allow you to access your report online.

No. Our WorkplaceNL health and safety advisors will provide objective feedback and recommendations as part of the CAAT report.

There is no requirement for you to adopt all recommendations. Our advisors highlight any legislative requirements, but the employer has full control of what recommendations they choose to implement into their organization.

There is no requirement for additional CAAT assessments.

Your first assessment provides a benchmark for your organization. We recommend employers re-assess the culture of their organization after a year to determine if new processes and procedures were effective.

If you would like to conduct another full assessment after implementing changes to your health and safety management systems, request another assessment at any time. CAAT is a flexible tool that also allows WorkplaceNL to assess specific health and safety factors at your request, without conducting the full assessment each time.

After your CAAT assessment, our WorkplaceNL health and safety advisors are available to help you develop action plans, set goals and objectives and prioritize recommendations.

No. If you want to conduct a culture assessment, CAAT allows us to use the sections you would like to have assessed. Alternatively, WorkplaceNL advisors can assess your health and safety management systems independently from the safety culture at your request.