3 Phase Safety Action Plan

Having worked with numerous companies to implement an effective Safety & Health Management System, I'd like for you to consider the 3 Phase Safety Plan I developed to achieve success. The first phase includes improving employee and supervisor participation while at the same time increasing the hazard inspections so we can find and fix hazards before someone gets hurt

Utilizing OSHA’s plan, first, jot down what you already have in place and what you would need to develop.  It can be hard to figure out where to start, if you don't already have a lot in place.  So, I'd like to suggest that you start with your Vision, and then use my 3 Phase Safety Plan scorecards to monitor your progress.   

Remember the Plan-Do-Check-Act steps as you go

What is your vision or mission?

Our vision for safety and health is to create a safe workplace by reducing hazards which will reduce our accidents

In order to reach this vision we will implement the following long term safety goals using a partnership approach with management and employees

1.    We need to improve employee, supervisor, and management involvement and visibility

2.    We need to establish a baseline (by conducting a gap analysis of inspections, hazards, close call, and accident statistics) for what we plan to measure so we can establish a recognition program for those employees who step up and go above our expectations

3.    We strive to achieve ZERO accidents, but we'll absolutely expect to reduce our accidents by X % each year

4.    We need to conduct inspections for physical hazards, fix the hazards, and train employees about the hazards we found so they can help to prevent them from reoccurring

5.    We strive to identify hazards so they can be fixed so employees do not get injured.  So, we absolutely expect X inspections to be conducted

6.    We need to conduct observations for unsafe behaviors, motivate employees to change their behaviors, and train all employees about safe vs. unsafe behaviors so they can help us prevent them from re-occurring

7.    We strive to identify unsafe acts so they can be turned into safe acts so employees do not get injured.  So, we absolutely expect X behavior observations to be conducted

By Deborah Grow, Safety Consultant

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Safety Education for Employees

The Solution Is Obvious

 

- OSHA Act

Provide a safe and healthful workplace Free of recognized hazards

Then shouldn't we be educating employees about the OSHA rules, the hazards, looking for and correcting hazards? Shouldn't we want employees to bring hazards to our Attention so we can fix them before someone gets hurt? Shouldn't we want employees to report more close call or near miss? Don't we want to find the problems so we can fix them before someone gets seriously hurt? Shouldn't this be a Goal you want to continue to improve?

A primary goal of any safety action is to remove, reduce, or otherwise manage hazards. It’s obvious then that the first step must be to recognize the hazard!  While it is extremely important to identify hazards in the planning stage, Hazards are not static, they change over time as environmental, equipment, human, and management factors change! Hazard Recognition is a never ending necessity at all stages and levels in each and every task!

Increase workplace inspections to identify new or previously missed hazards, Find and fix more hazards, Train employees about hazards and JSA procedures (more than once so they remember! Find a positive way to increase reporting of near miss or close calls and investigate a near miss just as you would an OSHA recordable or lost time (in a timely manner) and then recheck that JSA you wrote to perform that task. If that JSA is well written, employees have been well trained on the tasks, hazards, and controls to prevent accidents, and you have a close call or near miss........then you missed something and need to address it.

• How many inspections you do and how many hazards are being found and how long it takes to get hazards corrected are leading indicators of how effective your inspection and hazard reporting programs are
• How many training sessions and how well the employees retain the information are leading indicators of how effective your training program is. If your hazard reporting is low, but you still have close call or accidents, then perhaps you should focus training on hazards or unsafe acts
• How many hazards are found and corrected in a timely manner are leading indicators of how effective your safety program really is

Safety Goals

• To Increase the number of inspections for hazards by X % over the previous year
• To increase the number of hazard reports received by X% over the previous year
• To increase the number of close call or near miss reports received by X% over the previous year
• To investigate all hazardous events within X number of days of the occurrence

What Gets Measured Gets Done

What Gets Celebrated Gets Done Well

Author: Deborah Grow, Safety Consultant

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