Safety Responsibility Assignments

Safety responsibilities assigned to each manager, supervisor, and employee should be tied to appropriate consequences. If the employee fails to meet established standards, consistent, fair corrective actions should be administered. If the employee meets or exceeds those standards, positive recognition should occur. Remember, if you regularly recognize, you ll rarely have to reprimand. 

The audit includes a review of the process safety information, inspection of the physical facilities, and interviews with all levels of plant personnel. Using the procedures and checklist, the team systematically analyzes compliance with the PSM Rule and any other relevant corporate policies. The training program is reviewed for adequacy of content, frequency and effectiveness of training. Interviews determine employee knowledge and awareness ofthe safety procedures, duties, rules, and emergency response assignments. The team identifies deficiencies in the application of safety and health policies, procedures, and work authorization practices to determine live actions. 

Metrics alone will not improve process safety. Data must be collected, analyzed, communicated, understood, and acted upon. Management s visible responses to identified problems are as important as, if not more important than, the metrics themselves. Objectives may be defined and responsibilities assigned, yet a lack of management follow-up will undermine focus and weaken commitments. Company leadership must be committed to process safety performance. A demonstrated commitment to process safety by an organization s senior leadership is essential. 

He first traced the system requirements to the responsibilities assigned to each of the components in the safety control structure, that is, he performed a gap analysis as described above for the NASA ITA risk analysis. The goal was to check that at least one controller was responsible for enforcing each of the safety requirements, to identify when multiple controllers had the same responsibility, and to study each... 

The plant management gives the assignments for process safety responsibility to all affected employees, contractors, and support organizations so that they know who has which process safety responsibility. There are lots of ways to do this but the more visible the better. 

Supervisors not adequately trained for assigned safety responsibility. 

This means that management must know what they want and determine what work is necessary to achieve the implementation of the safety management system. Safety responsibility must be assigned and the work relationship must be clearly defined to achieve the safety objectives. The safety managanent system must have a set of standards, targets, and timelines. Expectations must be set for the number of employees to be trained and the number of inspections to be carried out, among other activities. Some objectives could be ... 

Employees should be empowered to take part in safety decisions and to participate in the safety management system. Part of this is the establishment of employee authority, safety responsibility, and accountability for all levels. One of the best methods for employee empowerment is a facilitated workshop where management is encouraged to talk to the employees. This should be held in a safe space. The facilitator asks employees to list the things that could be done to improve safety at the plant, and what hampers safety in the workplace. Once a list is compiled, the attendees are asked to list what actions are needed to rectify the identified stumbling blocks and also to assign responsibility for those actions. Once the critical few hazards have been isolated, commitments are made to take action to rectify either the behaviors or conditions to eliminate the listed potential accidents. It is simply a matter of the employees tell us how we can improve safety. ... 

Responsibility is a heavy burden. Safety responsibility is the obligation to carry forward an assigned task to a successful conclusion without accidental loss occurring. With responsibility goes authority to direct and take the necessary action to ensure success. Safety responsibility is also the obligation entrusted to the possessor, for the proper custody, care, and safekeeping of property or funds or supervision of an individual or individuals. 

Managers should start practicing management by walkabout and visit their respective work areas. They must speak to their anployees, who are vital sources of information and are often overlooked in a culture intervention. Employees love to talk about safety and can tell more about the current state of safety in the plant than the audit will. The scheduled site visits and safety walkabouts should be written into the key performance areas of managers at all levels. This would be part of assigning safety responsibility, as discussed. 

Assignment of safety responsibility to a senior executive, such as a vice president,with the manager of safety and health programs reporting to this person. 

The plant has been conceived and built within a legal framework that provides for the regulation of nuclear activities and for the clear assignment of safety responsibilities. 

After developing your safety policy implementation strategy, you ll need to assign responsibility. Who is responsible for what Review the following list of recommended safety responsibilities ... 

As noted in Chapter 32, safety begins in an organization with a policy stating the importance of safety. It assigns responsibility, authority, and accountability. Extensions of the policy are procedures that detail implementation. 

There are many ways to structure an organization to make it effective. As a result, there are many ways to assign safety responsibilities. Many organizations structure functions into two major components line and staff. Line elements of an organization are those that produce a product or deliver a service. They get the detailed work done. Staff elements take care of business matters, such as finance, accounting, research and development, and sales. Staff elements also take care of special matters, such as legal. 

The program is founded on the competent area-manager concept. In other words. General Electric s safety philosophy assigns principal safety responsibility to the... 

Each individual assigned safety responsibilities receive the necessary training to properly recognize fire hazards, inspect and maintain fire extinguishers, and the proper use of each. 

Compliance with the established legislative and statutory framework for safety and environmental protection has to be enforced. No other responsibility assigned to the regulatory body should jeopardize or conflict with this mission. The regulatory body shall implement the licensing process and shall, where appropriate, develop and update the rules, criteria, guidelines, etc., and ensure that adequate records of radioactive waste management facilities or sites are maintained for an appropriate period of time. 

Make sure that safety responsibilities are assigned to specific employees as applicable... 

Everyone in the workplace should have some responsibility for safety. Clear assignment helps avoid overlaps or gaps in accomplishing activities. Safety is not the sole responsibility of the safety professional. Rather, it is everyone s responsibility, while the safety professional is a resource and mentor to help get the job done. 

In larger organizations, managers must develop a management system for clearly assigning safety responsibilities and authority, and providing the necessary resources to get this accomplished. 

Some small companies do not understand the value of job descriptions. OSHA believes that, with respect to safety responsibilities, written statements are preferable to oral assignments [2]. 

Support the safety professional and employees in their requests for information, training, other professional services, facilities, tools, and equipment needed to develop an effective safety program Assign clear and understandable responsibilities for the various aspects of the safety program... 

Hold all supervisors accountable for all assigned safety responsibilities, including their responsibility to make sure that employees under their direction comply with all safety policies, procedures, and rules... 

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