Published on July 10, 2023
Safety Initiative: Model Areas (Role modelling in safety through leadership engagement)
In order to reach higher standards of safety and health, Tata Motors takes proactive measures and techniques and encourages a culture of prevention. Everyone has the prime responsibility of demonstrating commitment towards safety.
Senior leaders at Tata Motors set the tone at the top by demonstrating their visible commitment towards safety and health through their personal actions. Tata Motors engages its employees and allocates adequate resources for continual improvement in its safety and health performance.
To achieve these objectives, Safety is a part of company’s performance. All leaders, including the Executive Director, Business Heads, Plant Heads and Functional Heads have Safety in their respective Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
In the financial year 2023, Tata Motors has undertaken various safety initiatives at the company level. One of the best initiatives is the Model Areas Initiative, i.e. role modelling in safety through leadership engagement.
As part of this initiative, each General Manager at the company plant is assigned a Role Model Area from his operational areas. Leaders have to own a Model Area and implement all the safety standards and procedures in letter and spirit in this area. In this practice, senior leaders demonstrate visible commitment and become role models by investing their time at the production floor or peripheral areas, known as Model Areas, at least twice in a month. Model Area engagement is being monitored in the company level score card and presented in the SHE Council.
While selecting Model Areas, leaders have to keep in mind that these areas are critical to safety across manufacturing sites/plant peripheral area, where safety is unseen, various contractors are working and the scope of development in physical infrastructure and safe behaviours exists. Model Area enhances safety through:
- Safety demonstration on the ground – Walk the Talk
- Building a culture of ‘See Something, Say Something’ and layered audit
- Improved leadership engagement across levels and role model behaviour
- Visible felt leadership and action planning to bridge the gap of safety standard implementations
- Demonstrating safety ownership, and challenging the status quo
- Impactful, direct safety communication to employees
- Communication cascade on various violations and incidents
Results of Model Areas:
Description |
Measure (Lower, the Better) |
FY 21 | FY 22 | Q1 FY 23 | Q2 FY 23 | Q3 FY 24 | Q4 FY 24 | YTD FY 23 | |
| Occurrence Prevention | Number of Engagements of area owners with Model Area (Communication, R&R, Safety Pause, Improvement Action) | No.of model areas | New KPI | 96 | 96 | 96 | 96 | ||
| Number of Engagements | New KPI Reporting to Start from Q2. | 448 | 449 | 644 | 1541 | ||||
