Developing a Workplace Safety Management Program 

Did you know that you can develop a safety program for your small business or organization without hiring a dedicated safety professional?

Regardless of the size of your company, we all know that hiring employees, especially in the health and safety department, is not cheap. However, it can be even more expensive to not have a safety program in place at all.

After all, a workplace safety program can help:

• Prevent workplace injuries and illnesses
• Improve compliance with laws and regulations
• Reduce costs, including significant reductions in workers' compensation premiums
• Increase employee involvement and engagement
• Increase productivity and enhance overall business operations
• And more...

Now, imagine having an OSHA Compliant Safety Program without the hassle or costly salary of hiring a dedicated safety professional? In this scenario, you have the best of both worlds:

1. Your company has a safety program with processes and procedures in place to help prevent injury and illness, reduce costly insurance premiums, and improve overall efficiency
2. You have a program that doesn’t require a dedicated safety manager

This is clearly the ideal scenario for most small to medium-sized businesses, but how can you manage a program like this?

Here at Alliance, we have partnered with Greg Gerganoff, CSP, ESQ of Rocky Mountain Safety Consulting to help our clients develop an effective workplace safety and health plan for their business that doesn’t require a full-time safety director to manage. Greg has over 19 years of experience as a safety professional, and has extensive experience in the mining, oil and gas, and construction industries.

If you are interested in seeing if your business qualifies for a free Safety Consultation, fill out the form below. In doing so, you will also have the option to download the free full report entitled, “Small Business Safety Programs Without a Dedicated Safety Manager”. See below for a sneak peak of the materials covered in the full report.

How to Manage a Successful Safety Program in any Organization

There are two basic elements to any safety program: management, and knowledge of good safety regulations and practices. Let’s start with the management element first, and then we will weave the safety regulations and practices into the picture later.

There is no way you can do everything yourself. In order to get many things done and run a successful company, you must be able and willing to delegate tasks and responsibilities to your employees: delivering equipment to a project site, equipment operation, timekeeping and payroll, office administration, etc. This same concept applies for safety, but with certain differences.

Implementing an effective safety program without employing a dedicated safety professional

What does such a system look like in practice?

1. Everyone is a safety person.

2. Everyone is responsible and accountable for safety.

3. The employer must provide safety training so that project supervisors, lead men, and crewmen know what sound safety practices are.

4. The owner/president of the company, along with several others in the company, will help to oversee safety (accountability aspect).

5. Safety starts with everyone in the company (project managers, crewmen, the president, accounting, HR—everyone).

Here are some suggested steps of implementing your program:

1. Write out your objectives of who will have what responsibilities. This does not have to be long – a single page is a good starting point. Hold a meeting with your top direct reports and discuss to get their suggestions.  
2. In this initial writing, identify the hazards for tasks commonly faced by crews. For example: climbing ladders, working in trenches, entering sewers, working on equipment, etc.  I suggest that you ask your crews for input on this list of hazards. They may see hazards that you have overlooked. Get their input and add it to the list if reasonable.
3. Safety training resources.  Explain how safety training works.  For example, explain that you will, at least initially, provide some toolbox safety talks to train employees.  OSHA is a great resource. You may find that ASSP (formerly known as ASSE) puts out a publication called Professional Safety or Safety + Health from the National Safety Council, which also produces nice, short articles that explain safety issues on a variety of topics.  
4. Actual safety training.  There are two levels of safety training.  The first level is formal classroom training.  This type of training may be provided by an outside safety trainer.  Outside trainers may be more suitable for certain topics (such as trench or confined space safety training).   
   
   

Thank you for reading this sneak peak from the report titled, “Small Business Safety Programs Without a Dedicated Safety Manager”. 
To claim your free copy of the full report, please fill out the form below.