The Viewpoint Competence at the heart of a safe organization highlights the importance of effective competence management in achieving consistently strong safety performance. Good competence management systems provide assurance that the workforce has the necessary skills, knowledge, and experience to undertake their roles safely. Weaknesses in these systems can lead to incidents and accidents that the workforce could have prevented. Capable staff at all levels in the organization design and implement risk controls that deliver safe outputs. Competence management is a strategic risk, and it is essential for organizations to treat it as a key strategic decision. A strategic approach is necessary to provide a coherent framework to support competence management in a way that is optimal for the specific organization and responds to stakeholder needs. A competence management system (CMS) is the collection of operational arrangements within a company that are available to collectively manage competence and deliver the competence strategy. Business leaders should ask key strategic questions to determine if their competence management arrangements are robust and effective.
