When constructing a building, a good foundation is essential for a safe and solid structure. It’s the same with workplace safety. You need good foundations on which to build effective safety programs.
What are the foundations of safety in your workplace? This is a very important question, and your answer is even more important.
Today, we present the suggestions of two organizations, each of whom recommends 7 essential foundations. As you’ll discover, each list is different, although there is some overlap.
The Texas Healthcare Foundation (www.texashealthcarefoundation.com) identifies 7 principles of effective safety programs:
1. Executive commitment. "Management commitment provides the motivating force and resources for organizing and controlling activities within an organization," says the Texas Healthcare Foundation.
2. Safety committee authority. "Provide adequate authority and resources to the safety committee to implement change and perform accident investigations with substance," says the foundation. "Allow them to listen to employee input and make safety a focal point of employee activity."
3. Employee involvement. Active employee participation in safety programs ensures a safer workplace. As Texas Healthcare Foundation points out, "Employee involvement provides the means through which workers develop and express their own commitment to worksite protection."
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4. Job hazard assessment. Hazard identification is the first step in eliminating or controlling hazards. It is a critical foundation for a safe workplace. Texas Healthcare says that for a truly safe workplace, you must "go beyond specific requirements of the law and address all hazards."
5. Comprehensive training solutions. Training prevents accidents and builds confident, competent workers who understand hazards and know how to work safely. It’s another essential foundation. Without it the whole structure of workplace safety is at risk of collapsing.
6. Effective discipline process. Safe work practices must be encouraged with daily feedback on safety performance, and if need be, enforced with progressive discipline. Breaking safety rules cannot be an option in a safe workplace.
7. Return to work program. An effective procedure for reintroducing employees injured on the job when they return to work is the final safety foundation for the Texas Healthcare Foundation. This is an element that may easily be overlooked. But failure to get employees back to work safely can weaken the whole structure of your safety programs, leading to reinjury and high disability costs.
Another Point of View
Oregon OSHA also suggest 7 foundations of safety, although the list is somewhat different:
1. Management leadership. Once again, management commitment to and leadership in workplace safety tops the list. Without the consistent and concerned support of top management, it’s hard to build solid foundations for workplace safety.
2. Hazard anticipation and detection. Another repeat. Obviously, hazard identification is a cornerstone of workplace safety. You can’t fix what you don’t see.
3. Hazard prevention and control. Eliminating hazards is the best solution. But since it’s not always possible, many hazards have to be controlled instead—with engineering controls, administrative controls, and PPE.
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4. Planning and evaluation. These foundations must be ongoing and aimed at continually improving workplace safety.
5. Administration and supervision. Well-administered safety programs and adequate supervision on the front line are essential foundations for preventing accidents, injuries, and illness on the job.
6. Safety and health training. As was emphasized earlier, you simply can’t have a safe workplace without a strong and effective training program. This is one that definitely must be on everyone’s list of safety foundations.
7. Employee participation. Finally, as in the Texas Healthcare Foundation’s list, Oregon OSHA hits the nail on the head with this one. No matter how committed you and your management are to safety, you won’t achieve desired results without employee involvement on an individual, work group, and safety committee basis.
Tomorrow, we’ll talk about safety foundations at a famous construction site where the safety foundations were just as important to success as the concrete ones on which the buildings were constructed.