Safety Program Management Training
In today's fast-paced, competitive business environment, anyone running a company has a lot of responsibilities.
Profitability, quality, financing, employee relations, customer service, resource management, sales and marketing...Is it any wonder that managers can feel overwhelmed at times?
Managing risks, people and property is important to the success of any business. The use of control systems to protect resources increases the chances of success. And one of the most important resources any business has is its employees.
The crucial activity of protecting the employee resource is often overlooked, however, sometimes with fatal consequences. In too many companies, the safety program is a haphazard effort - a training program here, a few posters there - or in some cases even nonexistent.
In other cases, some safety efforts have been implemented to comply with local, state and federal laws. These safety efforts may even include visible and tangible elements such as written policies and work practices regarding safety. Although it’s important to comply with these regulations, compliance isn’t enough to ensure that your workplace is safe.
What is a safe workplace?
A safe workplace is one in which all conditions and actions result in the performance of tasks with minimal risk of injury, illness or property damage. With today’s costs of doing business, the approach to safety must be as well thought out as a marketing effort or preparations for manufacturing a new product: management and employee commitment, clear goals, identification of issues, a coherent and cohesive strategy for success, employee involvement and comprehensive training.
A safety program involves much more than simply stating that “Safety is important around here.” Safety must be a core value of the organization, the fundamental belief that keeping employees safe from injury is a top priority. Making safety a core value is important for several reasons:
- No one wants to be involved in a painful accident or suffer a disabling injury.
- Keeping the workplace safe is - or should be - an important concern for everyone.
- Safety and accident prevention have a direct and measurable impact on financial performance.
The core values for any company begin with management’s beliefs about safety and their willingness to act on those beliefs. As with any management activity, good intentions about safety are not enough. It’s rare to find a business that completely ignores safety as an element of doing business. However, statistics clearly indicate that many companies do not make safety a priority: Every year, millions of disabling injuries and along with thousands of deaths occur on the job. Accidental death and injury expenses (lost wages, medical expense, workers’ compensation) cost companies billions of dollars each year. In addition, accidents cause low employee morale, poor work attitudes, low productivity and reduced quality.
Despite these facts, many companies still approach safety as something that’s “nice to do” as opposed to a smart business practice that “we want to do” and “is being done.” Making safety a core value of the organization - a way of thinking, making decisions and behaving - is the key to making the workplace safe. Safety must be seen by everyone as something that cannot be compromised. It must be seen as a guide for all thoughts and actions on the job. In other words, it must be a “way of life” in the workplace.
If safety is to be a core value, management must believe that:
- Accidents and injuries are unacceptable.
- Accidents and injuries damage business efficiency and employee morale.
- Accidents and injuries are preventable.
- A safety program is needed to prevent accidents and injuries.
- The safety program will have clear goals and measurements.
- Specific responsibilities will be assigned.
- Everyone in the organization will be held accountable for safety.
When management hold - and demonstrate - these beliefs, the core value of safety becomes clear to everyone in the organization. And the best way to demonstrate a belief in the importance of safety is through an effective safety program.
What Is A Safety Program?
A safety program is more than just a short-term plan; it is an ongoing system that organizes and focuses all safety efforts within an organization. Every activity that relates to safety becomes part of the unified safety program, sharing one central belief: Accidents which result in employee injuries and property damage are unacceptable.
For the program to be successful, management must incorporate a safety program into their overall management strategy. Like any other management activity (such as inventory management or production control), safety must be managed, measured and rewarded if accidents are to be eliminated in the workplace.
A successful safety program has the same elements as any business strategy:
- Well-defined goals
- Clear communication to ensure understanding of and commitment to the goals by management and employees
- Activities designed to achieve the goals
- Methods to guide, evaluate and monitor progress toward the goals
Everyone - top and middle management, supervisors, and employees - has to take personal responsibility for the safety of the workplace. They have to become involved by actively seeking out and eliminating hazards. And they have to hold themselves and others accountable for their safety performance.
The Blueprints for Safety® Safety Program Management Program provides a step-by-step approach to managing an effective safety program for your company. This program will help you make safety an integral part of your organization’s culture, organize all safety efforts, communicate the importance of safety to everyone in the company and establish a clear understanding and control of all workplace hazards. The outcomes of your safety program will include:
- An organized safety effort throughout the workplace
- A clear, well-understood statement of the company’s safety philosophy
- Identification and control of the hazards in the workplace
- Development of communication methods to distribute safety information and ideas throughout the organization
- Regular and scheduled training that provides employees with the information they need to perform their work without becoming injured or ill
- Development of procedures to respond to emergencies in the workplace
- Development of accident investigation methods to identify causes of accidents in order to prevent their recurrence
- Development of procedures to ensure injured employees receive appropriate medical attention and can return to work as quickly as possible
- Development of strategies to control workers’ compensation costs
