Safety is not complicated, so don’t overcomplicate it…keep it simple!
Links to Examples below...check them out!
This guide will provide a simple step process for developing a simple and effective safety program for any size company. Anyone can do it…so do it yourself, have someone else do it for you, or let us do it for you with our Dedicated Safety Manager program.
There are 6 simple steps that are easy to develop, implement, and manage.
Each step has a list of bullet points under them. The bullets are examples of ways in which you can accomplish each step.
Below you will find examples you can click on and view our examples for actual Clients, take a look and test drive.
The bullets are not the only way, nor must they be done to accomplish each step. They are a “most size, fits all” ways in which you can accomplish each step. If you would like other ideas or to discuss any of them with us, please be sure to let us know.
Step 1: Set Safety Expectations
Every employer, facility, project, owner, contractor, etc. must first set the minimum safety expectations for their employees, contractors, vendors, suppliers, public, etc.
You can accomplish setting the safety expectations by developing:
Contractor Contracts
Step 2: Communicate Safety Expectations
Once you have established the minimum safety expectations the next step is to communicate the safety expectations to your employees, contractors, vendors, suppliers, public, etc.
You can accomplish communicating safety expectations by:
Safety Orientations
Safety Training
Safety Signs
Step 3: Implement Safety Expectations
Now that the safety expectations have been set and they have been communicated to everyone, we need to implement the safety expectations by simply…going and doing what we said we were going to do.
This step involves two other greater topics to achieve a highly effective safety program you can learn more about here:
Guide to Implementing a Simple & Effective Safety Program
Guide to Developing a Strong Safety Culture
Those to topics are not necessary to establish your simple and effective safety program however, once your program is complete and established, the next two major keys to success for your program to reach the top 1% will include focusing on those.
You can accomplish implement safety expectations by:
Procedures
Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)
Job Hazard Analysis (JHA), Jobs Safety Analysis (JSA), Activity Hazard Analysis (AHA)
Form
Checklist
Step: 4: Monitor Safety Expectations are Implemented
At this point we are now doing safety which is the first biggest step and if you are doing at least step 1 – 3 you are much farther along than other companies.
From here we need to monitor that the expectations are being implemented to make sure we are doing what we are saying we are going to do. This is a critical part for Step 5 work effectively. In this step we can identify what is working and what is not work. This is the first step to begin to establish accountability.
You can accomplish monitoring the safety expectations by:
Safety Inspections
Safety Audits
General Supervision
Coaching
Teamwork
Step 5: Correct and Improve Safety Expectation Implementation
During the monitoring step best practices, what work well, what I working really well, and what is not working well, and what is not working at all will be identified.
This is a very large step and opportunity to now separate your safety program from many other companies’ safety programs.
Here you need to take advantage of the hard work and make a change. For the good stuff, promote it and learn from what makes it so good and do more of it. For the stuff that is not working, either fix it and make it great or determine if it isn’t working for a reason and is not worth making working at it makes better sense to get rid of it and focus on what works well and makes the biggest impact.
You can accomplish this by:
Assign
Track, and
Complete actions to meet your safety expectations.
Annual Improvement Action Plan: Develop a Safety Management Strategy
Step 6: Maintain Safety Records
Through all of the step you need to document everything. If you didn’t document it…it never happened…if you can’t show me or a court of law…it never happened or is at the least, extremely difficult to prove. Try running your safety program with the mindset of, “if it isn’t documented, it never happened.”
This will cover all your bases and ensure you manage your risks and liabilities and will always be able to defend your safety program and everything you have worked so hard for.
You can accomplish this by:
Paper: distribute, collect, organize and store them in a file by month and by year
Electronic: filed in the same manner as the paper file system on a computer hard drive, shared drive, or cloud file storage system
Safety Management Software: Recommended and best management practice
Unofficial but extremely important step 7: Repeat
This is a circular set of steps so continue to repeat as you manage and implement your simple and effective safety program.
That’s it!
Simple and effective safety program for any size company.
Once your safety program is complete or if you are looking to improve and take it to the next level, I challenge you to review our Guide to Implementing a Simple & Effective Safety Program and Guide to Developing a Strong Safety Culture.
If you have any questions, would like any support, or even help setting your safety program up, please let us know.
Our Dedicated Safety Manager program allows us to do all of this for you...so DIY or Our Team can Partner with Your Team and we can manage your safety program for you. If you are interested in learning more and see the cost benefit analysis and ROI, please let us know you would like to learn more.