Special Topics in Safety Management

How’s Your Safety Management Program?

Does your safety management program meet all of the following criteria? It should.

Management Leadership

Do you:

  • Develop policies that provide clear priorities for safety and health?
  • Consider safety and health to be a line rather than a staff function?
  • Follow safety and health rules personally, leading by example?
  • Delegate authority to those with assigned safety responsibilities?
  • Allocate resources to support the safety and health systems?
  • Ensure that appropriate safety and health training is provided?
  • Support fair and effective policies that promote safety and health performance?
  • Place value on employee involvement and participation in safety and health issues?

Employee Participation

Do you develop effective means to involve employees in safety and health issues and actively involve employees in:

  • Organizational decision making regarding safety and health policy?
  • Organizational decision making regarding safety and health resource allocation?
  • Organizational decision making regarding safety and health training?
  • Hazard detection activities?
  • Hazard prevention and control activities?
  • The safety and health training of co-workers?

Having an effective and consistent program in place for enforcing safety rules, performance, and behavior is vital for a successful safety program. BLR’s upcoming live webinar will provide a roadmap for developing and implementing an effective enforcement strategy. Learn more.


Administration and Supervision

Do you:

  • Assign safety and health responsibilities to individuals or positions?
  • Clearly communicate to those responsible?
  • Have an accountability mechanism in place for each assignment of responsibility?
  • Ensure persons with assigned responsibilities have the knowledge and ability to do the job?
  • Ensure persons with assigned responsibilities have the authority to do the job?
  • Ensure persons with assigned responsibilities have the resources to do the job?
  • Ensure company policies promote performance of safety and health responsibilities?
  • Achieve correction of nonperformance of safety and health responsibilities?

Planning and Evaluation

Do you have effective systems in place to provide for:

  • Workplace injury/illness analysis?
  • Hazard incidence analysis?
  • Setting and evaluating goals and objectives for safety and health?
  • Action planning to accomplish goals?
  • Comprehensive review of safety and health management system?
  • Thorough review of federal OSHA state mandated programs?

Employee Training

Do you provide:

  • Appropriate safety and health training for employees?
  • Initial orientation that covers applicable safety and health information?
  • Appropriate safety and health training for supervisors?
  • Supervisory training covering supervisory aspects of safety and health responsibilities?
  • Appropriate safety and health training for managers?
  • Management training that covers relevant safety and health management aspects?

A well-written, clear discipline plan is also crucial for enforcement of safety rules. Join us on April 9 for an in-depth webinar on how to legally discipline risk-takers who ignore workplace safety obligations. Click here for details.


Hazard Anticipation and Detection

Do you have effective policies, plans, or procedures for:

  • Baseline hazard surveys of safety and health conditions?
  • Regular self-inspections covering the entire facility?
  • Conducting surveillance of established hazard controls?
  • Hazard reporting?
  • Change analysis of new or changed facilities, equipment, materials, or processes?
  • Accident investigation to determine root causes?
  • Understanding SDS usage relating to potential chemical hazards in the workplace?
  • Conducting job hazard analysis, job safety analysis, or phase hazard analysis?
  • Having expert hazard analysis conducted periodically?
  • Incident investigation to determine root cause?

Hazard Prevention and Control

Have you implemented:

  • Feasible engineering controls where possible?
  • Effective safety and health rules that are understood by the workforce?
  • All applicable OSHA and state mandated programs?
  • PPE usage procedures?
  • Good housekeeping procedures?
  • Emergency action plans?
  • Emergency medical plans?
  • Effective preventive maintenance procedures?
  • Good housekeeping procedures?
  • Tracking procedures for hazard correction?

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