COMPONENTS
OF A HEALTH AND SAFETY PLAN
As management, you want a
health and safety plan that will work for the benefit of all. As
an employee you want to work in a safe environment and know that
your employer cares about the health and safety of their
workforce. To accomplish this we must complete several steps.
They aren’t one-time steps – but ongoing ones. It takes everyone
contributing and caring to make any health and safety plan work.
So let’s get started. If you already have a safety plan in
place, these steps will be a good benchmark to use in evaluating
the effectiveness of the plan.
The steps in developing a plan are:
LEADERSHIP COMMITMENT: Management must commit to the
concept of a plan. This can be done by signing a written
statement of commitment to a safe and healthy work environment
for all. The responsibility for developing a plan, implementing
it, and monitoring progress, should be assigned to one
individual. They should also have the ability to bring together
a taskforce committee or team in order to help develop it. If
the “team” is composed of a cross-section of people from various
departments, the rest of the employees will more readily accept
whatever decisions are made.
ANALYSIS: The “team” should look at the company’s track
record, assess every area of the business and come back with
recommendations. Reviewing past injuries, illnesses and
accidents provides a starting point for the analysis. If each
department is represented, the individual team members can
enlist their co-workers in the effort of identifying potential
or established problems. This expands the sphere of influence.
EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT:
¨ Develop a plan for correcting situations so that accidents
will not happen in the future.
¨ In some cases, it may mean conducting education and training
programs for employees.
¨ Conducting periodic meetings with employees to review and
reiterate the need for safety.
¨ Keep accurate records of what has occurred and what steps have
been taken to correct situations.
¨ Let the employees know on a routine basis how successful the
program has been in promoting a safe environment.
¨ There may be an opportunity to promote competition among
departments for the best safety record, or awards and
recognition for innovative ideas that help create a healthier or
safer environment.
RECORD KEEPING: This is a critical component of every
health and safety program. The injury and illness records must
be updated regularly by using the OSHA 300 form. In addition,
the organization must keep records on training,
self-inspections, safety meetings and status reports on
corrective actions. A “responsible person” should be identified
to keep each type of records.
INSPECTIONS AND AUDITS: An ongoing audit and inspection
program is necessary to remove hazards before they cause
accidents. This segment of the health and safety program should
include a focus person to ensure the audits are being conducted,
audit tools for employees to use and how corrective action will
be documented and completed.
ACCIDENT REPORTS: Any time there is an accident, an
investigation should occur immediately to find out what happened
and why. Determining the “root cause” may be useful to correct
similar situations in the workplace and should be factored into
future safety programs and education. The organization needs to
identify what types of accidents will be investigated, by whom
and the process for corrective actions. All this should be in
written format.
PROGRAM REVIEW: Regular inspections and reviews are
needed to make certain that the company is on track with their
health and safety program. Revise the program as necessary.
Keeping everyone involved in promoting a safe and healthy work
environment will also promote a better working environment in
other ways, including higher employee morale and production.
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Dr. Isabel Perry prescribes solutions to reduce risk, costs and
increase production for all types of organizations. Dr. Perry is
an Orlando, Florida based Safety Professional with over 20 years
of broad-based safety experience including: safety speaker,
safety consultant, expert witness, and former safety executive
at a Fortune 50 company. Her clients include many multinational
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