Introduction to Fire Safety Management

Internal fl ow of information
The type of information that has to be communicated 
internally includes:
➤
The health and safety policy and practices
➤
The level of commitment by senior management 
to the policy and its implementation
➤
What the safety objectives are and how they are to 
be achieved
➤
How performance is to be measured and the out-
come of that measurement
➤
The outcome of the investigation of any safety 
events including fi re incidents and personal injury 
accidents or near misses and false alarms.
There is a wide range of methods for communicating 
safety information within an organisation. Successful 
managers will adopt suffi cient methods to ensure that 
safety information is widely known and understood. 
Key to effective internal communication is the visible 
behaviour of senior managers; the quality of written 
information and face to face discussion.
Managers will need to lead by example, for instance 
if there is a requirement for fi re doors to be closed in 
specifi ed locations on site, senior managers will always 
be seen closing them. Similarly if the policy of the 
organisation is to encourage the active participation of 
employees the senior managers’ behaviour will refl ect 
that policy in their dealings with staff.
Senior managers will also take an active interest in 
safety matters and be directly involved in, for example, 
Figure 4.3
Diagram of effective organisational communi-
cations
Inputs
Internal flow
Outputs

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Introduction to Fire Safety Management
66
only the technical content, but also the more subtle 
messages relating to the importance of the informa-
tion and the people it is being communicated to. The 
opportunities to reinforce safety messages in this way 
are extremely valuable, as they will often allow for the 
fl ow of information in a number of directions, e.g. from 
shop fl oor to stores, and from sales to management. 
Face-to-face communication will also reinforce the 
successful organisation’s ethos of employee involvement 
at all levels which directly affects the safety culture.