A safety management system is designed with the
intent to serve as a framework for an organization, as a minimum, to meet its
legal occupational safety and health obligations. A safety management system is
only as good as its implementation and sustainable efforts. A world class safety management system involves every level of the organization, instilling “the value of
safety” within the workforce that reduces incidents and improves a reduction of
risk. Furthermore, a world class safety management system provides evidence of
continuous improvement. A business that embraces a safety management system,
will have a story to tell and capturing continuous improvement within the
elements of safety management system is a key factor of validating the safety
management system.
As you know, within a safety management system,
all parts are interrelated and affect each other. All
elements within the safety management system are related to all other elements
of the system. A flaw in one element will most likely impact all the other
elements, and therefore the quality of the system as a whole.
This article will briefly focus on the Safety
Policy and Commitment element. This particular element set the foundation of
all the other elements for the one and only reason. That reason is that the other elements must
circle back to the safety policy and commitment. Remember, all activities
within the safety management system are to reflect the safety policy and
commitment set forth by the organization.
SAFETY POLICY
AND COMMITMENT
The organization
must prepare an effective occupational safety policy that provides a clear
direction for the organization tofollow in order to improve and continuously
improve worker safety. Once written, the
policy and commitment will contribute to all other aspects of conducting day to
day business within the organization.
The policy should provide a commitment to continuous improvement along
with compliance to occupational safety law.
Defining expectations of customers’, stakeholders, employees and
contractors should also be documented within the policy.
An example of a
Safety Policy is:
- Safety and
health in our company shall be a part of every operation.
- Safety is every
employee's responsibility at all levels.
- We shall comply
with local safety and health jurisdictional regulations.
- We shall maintain
a safety and health management system conforming to the best practices
within our specific industry.
An example of a Safety
Commitment is:
The safety and health of every employee is a high
priority. Management accepts responsibility for providing a safe and healthy working
environment and employees, at all levels, shall take responsibility for
performing work in accordance with established safety and health standards and
practices. Safety and health will only be achieved through teamwork.
Everyone must join together in promoting safety and health and taking every
reasonable measure to assure safe working conditions within our place of work.
In conclusion, operating on the principle of PLAN – DO – CHECK – ACT,
a safety management system enables an organization to carefully examine what
they do, define and implement safety improvements and continuously review and
manage safety systems and processes.
PLAN - Plan the
safety management system.
DO – Implement the safety management system.
CHECK - Evaluate
the safety management system.
ACT - Improve the safety management system.
The PDCA activities should always, lead a path back to
what is stated in the safety policy and commitment. It will be a waste of time and energy to
engage in activities that do not mirror the policy and commitment since those
activities will not be based upon reducing hazards to an acceptable level of
risk.
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