I am sure we have all heard this reference about safety and common sense. Unfortunately there are a lot of businesses with senior management that believe this. I find even those businesses that struggle with minimum compliance requirements will typically have this mindset about safety. But those businesses who are going beyond the traditional OSHA compliance approach have come to realize that true safety professionals have a lot to bring to the table and much of what we bring can actually reduce their frustration with safety. But this means a formal safety management system (SMS) is in place, and senior management is MANAGING SAFETY (e.g., the safety pros are RESOURCES to management to help achieve the safety goals of the business).
Senior management is responsible for determining the COMPETENCES and RESOURCES necessary to carry out the organization’s activities safely and shall provide them. We define “RESOURCES” as …
individuals (the number of individuals and their competencies), infrastructure, the working environment, knowledge and information, and suppliers, as well as material and financial resources.
Senior management must make arrangements to ensure that the organization has either in-house competencies or maintains access to the full range of competencies and the resources necessary to conduct its activities and discharge its responsibilities for ensuring safety. This includes determining which competencies and resources the organization has to retain or has to develop internally and which competencies and resources may be obtained externally.
Senior management must ensure that competence requirements for individuals at all levels are specified and shall ensure that training is conducted or other actions are taken to achieve and sustain the required levels of competence.
Competences to be sustained in-house by the organization shall include:
- competencies for leadership at all management levels;
- competencies for fostering and maintaining a strong culture of safety; and
- expertise to understand technical, human, and organizational aspects relating to business risks
Senior management is RESPONSIBLE for ensuring that individuals at all levels, including managers and workers:
- are competent in performing their assigned tasks and working safely and effectively, and
- understand the standards that they are expected to apply in completing their tasks
All individuals in the organization shall be trained in the relevant requirements of the safety management system. Such training shall be conducted to ensure that individuals know the relevance and importance of their activities and how their actions contribute to ensuring safety in achieving the organization’s goals.
The organization’s knowledge and information shall be managed as a RESOURCE!
