Safety management policy statements

Policy Did the organization have a clear, well-written, widely distributed policy statement outlining management s commitment to safety and the corporate safety philosophy Are the rights and responsibilities of employees included Was the policy statement current and signed by the appropriate manager Were well-defined safety goals and objectives included ... 

The document review is not a hazard assessment. It is only the determination that policy statements, safety policies and/or procedures, training, recordkeeping, JHAs, etc. are being used as intended, kept up to date and current within the organization. If it can t be found, then it doesn t exist (Occupational Health Safety Management Systems, 2012). 

Top management must do more than sign off on a policy statement. Senior management should be contacted and asked what the CEO or COO would like to do to support the safety effort. 

As you know from the policy statement distributed last month, we recognize continuous improvement in process safety management (PSM) as a company priority. 

Your health and safety policy statement sets out how you manage health and safety in your organisation. It is a unique document that shows who does what and when and how they do it. 

The health and safety policy statement is your starting point to managing health and safety in the workplace. By law, (Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 section 2(3)) if you employ five or more people you must have a written health and safety policy. This contains your statement of general policy on health and safety at work and the organisation and arrangements for putting that policy into practice. 

Writing a health and safety policy statement is more than just a legal requirement - it is your commitment to planning and managing health and safety. It is the key to achieving acceptable standards, reducing accidents and cases of work-related ill health and it shows your employees that you care for their health and safety. 

The Policy Statement should reflect the commitment of management to a high standard of readiness of critical equipment and should give high priority to the inspection and test program. The Purpose Statement should explain the unique importance of the program to safety, the environment and property protection. The Scope Statement should describe the classes of equipment and components included in the program. 

For employees, the policy statement is the declaration of an intent to achieve a goal. However, employees are skeptical of bureaucratic policies and look for more solid evidence of management commitment. Thus, the timing and sequence of health- and safety-related decisions demonstrate how the policy will be implemented and the importance of health and safety considerations. A health and safety pohcy with no follow-through is worthless and in fact may be damaging to employee morale by showing employees a lack of management commitment. This can backfire and can lead to poor employee safety attitudes and behaviors. Thus, an employer has to put the money where the mouth is to demonstrate commitment. If not, a policy is an empty promise. 

The Health and Safety Executive recommend that employers should devise their own policy statement in cooperation with school management teams and other employees. An adopted policy, for example, Be Safe (ASE, 1990) in science or Safe Practice in Physical Education (BAALPE, 1996), might not reflect the individual circumstances of each school. However, some LEAs might insist that their policy statements should be used, in which case it is recommended that schools annotate such documents and/ or add appendices to prescribed guidelines that specify the needs of the school. 

All class teachers and coordinators need to be familiar with the school policy contents and procedures and link the school aims with curriculum-specific policy statements. This will create an appreciation of the wholeness of health and safety management. It will also help to ensure that class teachers, at the heart of the teaching and learning proces, are well informed with expected practice. Similarly, school management, governors and head teachers, will need to ensure needs arising out of health and safety poHcies feature as priority items in the school development plan. 

Is upper management s commitment to employee health and safety clear What policy statements communicate this ... 

A safety policy statement should include statements about management involvement rather than the typical management commitment. ... 

Occupational safety and health policies are systems of codified decisions established by an organization to support the safety and health functions within the organization. Setting safety policies is when a manager develops standing safety decisions applicable to repetitive problems that may affect the safety of the organization. These are also referred to as safety and health standards to distinguish them from the safety policy statement. 

The safety policy statement is a substitute for repetitive management decisions and is mandatory. This is the guiding document in a safety system and perhaps the most important in implementing a change in safety culture. Although the concept safety should appear in the vision and mission statements of the organization, the safety policy statement is the declaration of the company s safety intent, commitment, and responsibility to constantly promote a safe and healthy work enviromnent. This policy should be extensively publicized and displayed on all notice boards, on the company website, in the employee safety handbook, and in prominent positions throughout the workplace. 

The most important step in the culture change process is the declaration of management s commitment to safety by declaring, issuing, and publicizing the company safety and health policy statement. As Jim Montanaro (2007) put it ... 

The safety policy statement is a substitute for repetitive management decisions and is viewed as mandatory. This is sometimes referred to as the occupational health and safety policy. This is the gniding document in a safety system... 

The communication of the policy should assist in d onstrating the conunitment of top management and the organization to safety and health. It will increase awareness of the commitments made in the policy statement by explaining why the safety system is established and maintained, and also guide individuals to understanding their safety and health responsibilities and accountabilities. 

Whilst it is clear that a good set of policies, statements and briefings from management is a good first step to a successful safety culture, the investigation into the Clapham Junction disaster emphasized that effective leadership is more than just words, (p. 9)... 

Management must develop a written safety and health policy statement. The policy dociunent must be issued and signed by the safety leadership team and should be communicated to all employees in the following manner ... 

A safety and health policy statement has many advantages and is a clear indication to employees that management is serious about their safety and health. This is the guiding document upon which the safety system is created and maintained. 

Management system problems can occur in three primary areas. First, the policy can be less than adequate. Actually, most organizations have carefully worded safety policy statements signed by the appropriate manager. Problems are much more likely to occur in one or both of the other areas. 

Safety policy — By developing a clear management safety policy statement, you help all employees at all levels of the company understand the importance of safety in relation to other organizational values (e.g. production and results vs. safety and health). A comprehensive safety policy provides an overall direction or vision while setting a fi amework fi om which specific goals and objectives can be developed. 

The policy statement should be communicated and made readily accessible to all employees and should be reviewed and revised by top management as often as necessary. An example of a policy statement can be found in Appendix E. In developing a chemical safety and security policy, laboratory management should establish a credible and strong compliance program, complete with accountability and consequences for noncompli-... 

Management commitment and leadership design and develop the policy statement. It should be signed by the top person in your company. Safety and health goals and objectives are also included to assist you with establishing workplace goals and objectives that demonstrate your company s commitment to safety. An enforcement policy is provided to outline disciplinary procedures for violations of your company s safety and health program. This enforcement policy should be communicated to everyone in the company. 

Employers who have a sincere interest in reducing employee injuries and illnesses will welcome discussions on how their safety and health management systems can be improved. A good number of companies have issued safety policy statements in which they affirm that they will comply with or exceed all relative laws and standards. Those employers, particularly, will want to implement provisions in the standard that are not a part of their safety and health management systems. 

Supporting data appear Annexes A-C on Policy Statements, Roles and Responsibilities, and Employee Participation. Another good reference on management leadership and employee involvement is the chapter Superior Safety Performance A Reflection of an Organization s Culture in On The Practice Of Safety. 

A wide range of documentary sources of health and safety information were referred to by those interviewed. The most frequently mentioned were as shown in Table 6.1. In addition to these, a variety of other documents were mentioned by just a few respondents, including the legislation, departmental instructions, safety data sheets, weekly notices, and posters. Managers were the most likely to refer to Board and local policy statements whereas most members of the workforce and safety representatives who could refer to documentary sources most frequently mentioned the rule book. Supervisors referred to five main documentary sources which in descending order of frequency were local policy documents health and safety booklets the rule book BRB policy and policy booklets . 

This group varied in their expectations five of the directors interviewed expected all staff to have some knowledge of the company s health and safety policies. In particular, they hoped that all staff would know the broad statement of responsibilities and overall philosophy of the policy statements. Three hoped for a much more detailed response from all levels of staff, for example, they expected reference to both the Board policy statement and local policy statements, the rule book, safety manuals, and the existence of safety representatives. The two other directors adopted a minimalist approach. Neither was very concerned about all staff having a detailed knowledge of the policies. One hoped that managers would know about the policies in some detail. But both were much more concerned that the staff knew what they should be doing and that they did it safely. Their emphasis was much more upon the rule book and line management... 

Departmental safety managers held fairly unanimous expectations. They hoped that staff were aware of the policies and could give a broad statement of the general principles contained in the policy documents. The documents they expected staff to refer to varied. Three expected reference to the Board s policy statement and three hoped that the local policy document would be cited. One considered the local policy document to be the most important document for all staff while another would not have been concerned if staff did not mention it at all, although he would prefer that they knew the spirit of the document. This manager regarded the rule book as the major document and hoped that this would be mentioned as a bare minimum by everyone. 

We have a cascade of statements, we start off with a Board policy statement. We also have local policy statements that are currently being revised into a different form. Many of our local policy statements are not up to date, a lot of them were done in the late 1970s when health and safety first got through to us. We have not been rigid in updating them nor in filling in the various appendices properly. Often we have taken a standard model and just duplicated it. (manager, interviewee 66)... 

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