Maybe it’s my age, but I have grown tired of organizations that proclaim their dedication to safety. Yet, they have no desire to put in place a formal and measurable SAFETY PROCESS/SMS that INVOLVES the men and women we work to protect. It is not rocket science, and it is the most basic and PROVEN model to reduce risks to the men and women doing the dirty and dangerous work…
1) Hazard Identification – establish standards for the physical workplace. OSHA is a great starting point. TRAIN personnel at ALL levels of the organization to be able to IDENTIFY deviations from those standards (e.g., hazards) and BEGIN LOOKING for these deviations.
2) Analyze those Hazards using a recognized methodology. A JSA/JHA can be a great starting point in most workplaces. But TRAIN those who will be facilitating these hazard analyses to ensure quality that will drive excellence.
3) Assess the Risk those hazards pose to the workforce, the business, and the environment. This will put the risks into perspective so we can allocate resources where they are most needed. But again, TRAIN those who will be facilitating the risk assessments to ensure a level of quality that will paint an accurate picture of the risks.
4) Mitigate the risk to an acceptable level – we use the Hierarchy of Controls. TRAIN those who will be formulating, managing, and implementing the corrective action plans (CAPS) from this process to ensure timely resolutions of REAL management system fixes related to the identified hazards and risks.
Rinse and Repeat with as many workers as possible… this is the path to World-Class Safety.
