Managing Safety: A System Beats Just Compliance With Rules By Carmen Daecher

Safety and health management systems can help you improve safety performance in your company. Management systems are not, or at least should not be, foreign to you. We use systems in much of what we do and often don't even give a thought to the "system" aspect of the process.

A management system allows us to decide what needs to be done, how best to do it and monitor progress toward established goals. Evaluation of results over time permits the process and results it creates to continue to improve. Another way to look at this is to follow the "Plan - Do - Check - Act" sequence of events.

"Plan" is the phase where you establish the objectives of the process. This phase should also include getting management support and provisions for employee involvement - both of which are critical to the success of the overall effort. The planning phase initiates the system and prepares an organization for implementation.

"Do" is the phase where plans are actually implemented.

"Check" means evaluate. Are things going according to plan? Are you obtaining desired results? The most important aspect of this phase is identifying areas for improvement. Not surprisingly, auditing is a key part of this phase.

"Act" is the phase where results of the evaluation are incorporated into the process to generate future improvements in performance.

Systems need not be complex to be effective. In fact, simple tends to be better. One issue that sometimes generates resistance to management systems is the notion that they simply produce more paperwork and do not accomplish anything. A poorly designed system can, in fact, do just that. We can get so carried away with forms, checklists, manuals and audit reports that we loose sight of the true goal: improving safety performance. One measure of a system's effectiveness should be the ease of use. If the front-line staff in your organization finds the system cumbersome, they will not use it.

Without a system to help you handle safety and health issues, you must reinvent the wheel each time new issues arise. A systems approach also fine tunes your total approach to safety and health over time so that you get progressively better at making sound risk reduction and hazard control decisions.

A management system is not a panacea.

The system must not take priority over the performance it is designed to improve. Bureaucracy - whether governmental or corporate - can bog down the use of the system and actually inhibit improvements rather than foster them. Don't let the safety and health management system turn into a paperwork monster.

Auditing is not in itself the goal of the process. Instead of audits being used as a tool to foster continuing safety and health improvements, they become the apparent result and improving audit scores begins to take on a greater importance than improving safety performance.

Management systems have a positive impact on safety performance. Compliance with regulations will not result in excellent safety and health performance, since it is a piecemeal approach.

A basic safety program usually emphasizes compliance with regulatory requirements. The biggest flaw in this approach is that regulations are written to generally apply to a wide range of operations and are not specifically tailored to your facility. Regulations are typically fairly prescriptive. Enforcement concerning performance most often becomes an issue after an incident, when irrefutable evidence of noncompliance exists in the form of an injured or killed worker.

In contrast, a foundational element of a safety and health management system is the concept of risk and hazard assessment. It is proactive, not reactive. The system should allow people involved in any area of an organization to conduct an effective risk assessment. Part of this process will confirm regulatory compliance, but the primary purpose is to develop a clear picture of overall hazards and risks involved so that effective strategies for eliminating or controlling the risks can be developed.

Another critical aspect of an effective safety and health management system is that the primary responsibility for safe performance is placed with the line organization - from employees through senior management. From where I'm sitting, this integrates safety into the overall business process, which is essential to excellent performance in safety.

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