Your participation and commitment is crucial to the success of the work- place safety program. You must not only establish the program and com- municate it to everyone within the organization, but you must also provide the resources to improve safety and health throughout the entire organiza- tion. Doing this includes providing employees and supervisors with the authority to identify and correct hazards, the budget to purchase new equipment or make repairs, the training necessary to work safely and to recognize hazards, and the systems to get repairs made, materials ordered, and other improvements accomplished.
As a business owner and manager, you also establish the importance of the workplace safety program, both by the priority you give workplace safety and health issues, and by the example you set by initiating safety and health improvements, correcting hazards, enforcing safety rules, rewarding excellent performance in safety and health, and following all safety rules. (Think about the message it sends when “the boss” walks through the shop without safety glasses when everyone else has to wear them.)
Safety and health programs are similar to quality improvement and other efforts organizations engage in to continually improve performance, cus- tomer service, competitiveness, organizational culture, and so forth.
In a small to medium-size business, employees will reflect the safety atti- tudes of its leaders and managers. If the organization is not interested in preventing employee injury and illness, employees probably will not give safety and health much thought. Therefore, it is absolutely essential that leaders and managers in an organization demonstrate at all times their per- sonal concern for employee safety and health. An organization’s actions and policies must clearly demonstrate that safety is an intrinsic company value. Workplace safety programs must describe how everyone in the organi- zation, whether management, first-line supervision, or labor, is responsible for making the program work. These duties should be clearly laid out. Everyone in the organization should be able to explain what their role is in creating a safer, healthier workplace.
Employees should feel they have some ownership and responsibility for creating a safe workplace. They should also be provided with the training, equipment, resources, and assistance to carry out their roles. Employees and supervisors need to know where to go to obtain assistance to resolve issues of safety and health concerns and to get questions answered. Most important, they need to know how to correct safety and health hazards in the workplace as the hazards are identified.
Some examples of assigned responsibilities are:
For Everyone in the Organization:
• All employees, including supervisors and managers, follow all safety rules at all times.
For Employees:
• Promptly report any safety and health hazards they observe to you or their supervisor.
• Perform each job task safely. If employees are unsure how to perform the task safely, they must consult with their supervisor.
• Wear personal protective equipment (PPE) as required for their pro- tection, and maintain the equipment in a sanitary manner.
• Report all incidents, including near misses, to their supervisor immediately upon occurrence.
For Supervisors:
• Discuss any current safety issues with employees at the beginning of all regularly scheduled meetings.
• Address all safety concerns raised by staff members by initially inves- tigating the issue, determining if the concern is valid, and taking appropriate corrective action whenever necessary. Corrective action can include:
• Ordering new equipment • Issuing maintenance work orders • Consulting with an outside expert
• After an injury, initiate an incident investigation and submit the completed incident investigation report.
• Actively and positively participate in all safety inspections, training, and enforcement activities.
• Conduct monthly meetings and area inspections to review incident reports, identify hazards, and address any and all safety concerns raised by employees.
• Review the workplace safety program at least annually, and make recommendations concerning updates and revisions to ownership/ management.
• Address all safety concerns brought to them by their employees and coworkers.
For Management:
• Communicate to all employees and supervisors the importance of worker safety and health throughout the organization.
• Review all safety concerns brought forward by first-line supervisors and employees.
• Review the workplace safety program and any recommended revi- sions from supervisors and employees at least annually, make the
appropriate revisions, and work with supervisors and employees to communicate the revisions.
• Review all incident investigation reports and take appropriate action to prevent recurrence.
• Conduct, in cooperation with first-line supervisors, all safety train- ing required by regulation or identified as a need to assure a safe workplace.
• Make improvements in physical plant, machinery, equipment, raw materials, and PPE.
Leaders and managers must understand their safety and health responsi- bilities and roles.
Enforcement of Workplace Safety Programs
Responsibility for safety and health exists at all levels in an organization. Owners, managers, supervisors, and employees all should know what their duties are to create a safe and healthful workplace and must follow all safety rules. All employees must know and understand what they need to do and what they need not to do to make the workplace safer for themselves and their coworkers. Workers must be trained about safe work practices and proper use of engineering controls and PPE. Additional strategies to enforce safety include:
• Coach employees to correct unsafe actions and discipline them if violations continue. Safety procedures should become a key part of the daily routine.
• Enforce safety rules. Supervisors are responsible for ensuring that engineering controls and PPE are correctly used and that procedures are followed correctly. Supervisors should be taught basic skills in being an effective supervisor.
• Support and encourage supervisors who attempt to enforce the rules fairly and equally. Safe work practice rules are not effective if their use is not enforced. Typically, OSHA holds the employer responsible if the organization does not enforce its own rules. Many supervisors do not like to discipline employees, especially if the employees are generally good workers. Others may not feel that management backs
them when they take disciplinary action against employees. If work- place rules are not enforced, they cease to have meaning.
• Enforce safe work practices. Such enforcement should be fair and consistent throughout the organization and based on an established policy.
• Set and obey the same rules as the rest of the workforce. Management and supervisors should be conscious of the examples they set for the workplace.
• Recognize exceptional workplace safety and health performance.