Safety management systems value

Whatever the system is called — significant incident recall technique, incident recall technique, or critical incident technique — adding such an element to a safety management system to identify hazards that particularly pertain to low probability-high consequence incidents will have value. 

Employers improve their prevention efforts if they recognize the insight and creativity of their workers. The task of reducing risk is well served if the culture makes it clear that worker s knowledge is valued and respected and that they are to participate in ownership of the safety management system. 

When the safety director analyzed the results, he found that the same shortcomings in the safety management system were recorded, largely, by all levels of employment. And there were many shortcomings. However, most important, some of the staff members reporting directly to the senior executive who authorized the survey indicated that, for the department as a whole, safety was not a high-level value. 

Several studies have raised questions about the value of quality, environmental and occupational health and safety management system certification [audits]. Many of the concerns raised in these studies have focused on the competency of the auditors performing conformity assessment audits. [Author s note The foregoing comments pertain principally to audits made for management system certifications with respect to quality, environmental, and occupational safety and health by persons external to an organization. Nevertheless, similar questions have been raised for many years about the value of comparable audits made by in-house personnel.]... 

Management has to decide if the calculated level of risk is acceptable, and, if it is not, what actions need to be taken to reduce it. Some Safety Management Systems—in particular many Safety Cases—are built around the concept of a numerical value for an ALARP (As Low as Reasonably Practicable) value, as already discussed. If the risk lies above or below the predetermined ALARP value then corrective actions must be taken. 

Other Safety Management Systems (including SEMP and SEMS) do not discuss acceptable risk per se, nor do they provide numerical values for acceptable risk. Instead they are largely driven by the acceptable levels of risk that are implicit in industry standards from bodies such as the API (American Petroleum Institute) and the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers). 

The true benefits of an effective Safety Management System have to do with saving human life and protecting the environment. Of course, there is no way in which an objective financial value can be placed on these benefits. Nevertheless, safety is considered by most managers to be an effective investment. The basic idea is that if a facility operates with integrity, i.e., it operates in the way that it was meant to operate, then all the facets of the operation discussed above will improve correspondingly. Conversely, a failure in one area will lead to deterioration in the others. Therefore the actions taken to improve safety will improve profitability. 

The scope and depth of a safety culture is dependent on how well the safety management system information is communicated. Begin to think in terms of your personal and professional network. Your network will determine the speed that your safety management system information moves through your organizahon. The quality of your informahon and its value to the leadership team and employees establishes the percephon of safety, and in turn, your influence on the safety culture. 

Steven Covey described these types of projects as unimportant and not urgent . This type of project gives you and the organization the perception that you are very busy even if those projects have no relevance to the safety management system. Always ask the question, does this project add value to the safety culture or the safety management system (Covey, 1990). 

The most efficient approach in developing any safety management system is to just listen to what employees have to say. This is the most direct way you can learn about the effectiveness of your safety management system. However, this approach can be difficult for various levels of management who have not had the opportunity to experience the true meaning of employee involvement. The culture of the organization may have a value system that reduces or prevents direct involvement of employees. The leadership team may... 

The underlying goal is not to add to the burden of the leadership team and employees who will he using the tool. Its introduction should enhance and be integrated into the current safety management system. Review your system and determine if it can replace other program elements that are not showing value or improvement to the system. The introduction must be kept simple, show that the tool is of value, and be quickly implemented. The preparation for the introduction is crucial and should include step-by-step instructions on its use. 

Determine what risk management knows about safety and what value you can bring to their process with the safety management system. 

The management of risk must be based on a strong safety management system that has been incorporated into the organization as a part of its real value system. 

To get started, what you will need to do is take a look at existing safety management system-related activities and decide which activities add value to the process and which activities currently do not add value. Once all existing safety activities are identihed, the decision can be made to remove, modily, and/or replace the nonvalued activities with new activities that will add value to the safety management system. Refer to Appendix O, Sample Activities and Results Measurements. 

For a strong safety culture, the organization must have developed emphasis on the positive values of the safety management system. The culture should have deeply embedded beliefs in the value of continuous education and training, as it ensures that all employees have a working knowledge of how the system operates and their responsibilities for continuous learning. 

A safety management system assessment provides a comprehensive assessment of the current state of the safety culture. The effectiveness of the safety management system should reflect the real values and beliefs of the organization. A structured and detailed assessment should provide specific details about potential gaps and opportuiufies for further improvement, not just in the safety management system but in your orgaiuzation as well. 

---