Safety and health policies that reflect commitment, define expectations, and articulate consequences can make a huge difference in protecting workers. We’ll tell you what it takes to make that happen.
Simply defined, an occupational safety and health policy is a plan that details how an organization will manage OSH issues. A good policy is one that establishes commitment to managing risks and meeting legal duties. And it should guide actions by stating principles and rules.
According to the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, a safety policy should:
- Involve senior management and representatives in its preparation
- Be consistent with workplace objectives of operating in an efficient and predictable manner
- Be relevant to a company’s needs, not adopted from another workplace
- Be considered as important as other workplace policy objectives
- Address the commitment of senior management to the establishment of a safe and healthy workplace and to the integration of worker protection into all activities
- Address the intention to treat regulations as a minimum
- Address the roles and accountability of personnel at all levels
- Include regular reviews of the policy and ways to monitor its effectiveness
Are your safety policies effective? Do they contribute to the protection of all your workers? You’ll find prewritten, ready-to-use safety and health policies for every safety need in BLR’s Essential Safety Policies. Examine it at no cost and with no obligation to purchase. Get details here.
Do You Have These?
Roslyn Stone is chief operating officer of Corporate Wellness, Inc. The business, based in Mt. Kisco, New York, acts as an internal medical department for fast-growing, mid-size companies. Corporate Wellness is especially active among restaurants, but also serves green industries, service businesses, and health care.
“There are certain key policies that every company needs to have,” Stone explains. Examples are those that address OSHA-mandated programs like bloodborne pathogens, lockout/tagout, confined spaces, electrical safety, and hazard communication.
Beyond these, Stone also advises clients to develop policies that reflect employees’ understanding of their safety–and health-related obligations.
The first is a healthy working policy. It might require, for example, that an employee out for 3 days or longer needs to bring a doctor’s note upon returning to work. It would also address an employee’s duty to report to a manager if he or she has a communicable disease (these should be listed), and underscore an employee’s duty not to come to work when sick.
Stone also recommends a safe working policy. This would state that an employee recognizes his or her duty to follow established safety procedures, report hazards, and tell supervisors if other workers are not using safe practices. As well, Stone believes that all organizations need a drug-free workplace policy. “Without it,” she says, “you will automatically attract the people who have left companies that do have these policies.”
A meaningful policy should clearly state the consequences for using drugs both inside and outside the workplace. The consequences will necessarily differ depending on the type of employment. For example, a business that employs transportation employees or others in safety-sensitive positions might have zero tolerance for workplace drug use. Another employer might provide for assessment and treatment if a worker is discovered using illegal drugs.
In Stone’s experience, about 25 percent of employers terminate for any kind of drug-related offense, regardless of where it occurs. Others have a one-strike rule for an off-the-job incident. That means a first offense is tolerated but a second would result in job loss.
Get the safety policies you need without the work. They’re in BLR’s Essential Safety Policies program. Try it at no cost and no risk. Find out how.
Are You Doing This?
Stone offers additional best practices for creating effective safety and health policies.
- Integrate policies into operations by involving employees in creating them. Policy should reflect the reality of what employees are doing and are exposed to, not just the beliefs of top management.
- Make sure orientation is not the only time employees are exposed to policies and procedures. Conduct an annual refresher of all policies, even if it’s not mandated by OSHA or another regulator. This is especially important if policies are primarily maintained online and your workforce does not have regular computer access.
- Consider establishing a policy to address emerging threats, such as H1N1 flu or others.
Tomorrow, we’ll look at what another company is doing to ensure that safety and health policy drives a robust worker-protection process.
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