First, what is VUCA?  It is an acronym for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity.  This is the biggest threat to your safety program.

Way too often when trying to go through a safety policy, an employee gets lost between idealistic Safety Vision taken somewhere from internet and description of the company portfolio.

SAFETY WINDOW DRESSING
It’s true; too often a Safety Policy is nothing more than window dressing – a template taken from a web resource and slightly adjusted to fit your company.

Treated as purely formal “must-have audit evidence”, such policy is not linked with safety objectives (if there are any) and ultimately with employee’s expected attitude towards safety at work.

Safety Policy just becomes another coin in the “piggy bank” of company bureaucracy and  inefficiency.  At worst, this can result in a fine, potential injury, or even a fatality.  Not good!

Finally complex and ambiguous Safety Policy is a missed opportunity for your top management to demonstrate how safety conscious they are about their employees.

So how should a company define its Safety Policy so that it is understood and be able to demonstrate that it actually works?

Let us go through the 5 steps to define, test and implement the bullet-proof Safety Policy System:

FIVE STEPS TO ENSURE YOUR SAFETY POLICY WORKS

1.  Top management understanding.  The effective Safety Policy starts with the top management’s understanding of what are their Safety Values.

Putting safety values together into a  Safety Policy shouldn’t be a shopping list.  Keep the policy short, clear and yet linked to your company’s core safety values and beliefs.

2.  Testing.  Here are a couple of useful and fun tests to see if your Safety Policy is clear and well-defined to others:

• T-shirt Test.  Read the policy and ask yourself if you would you agree to put it on a t-shirt and wear it?  If the answer is “No” then you’re not communicating  your values and beliefs well.
• Friend Test.  Ask your fried to read the Safety Policy and see if he or she  understands it.  If he or she doesn’t, then keep on working on it to make it clearer.

3.  Providing Infrastructure.   Once the policy is defined, top management should  support it and develop an adequate and relevant documentation infrastructure (e.g. when a policy states “we advocate defensive driving”, then company will want to make sure all company vehicles are  equipped with safety belts, emergency kits, etc.)

4.  Spreading.  When safety infrastructure can be assured, top management should spread the policy and values associated with it across organization and express clearly what they expect from each individual with regards to the policy (e.g.  Defensive driving – use safety belt, respect the speed limit, etc.).

5.  It Never Ends.  So now when your company has defined its safety policy , provided relevant infrastructure, communicated the policy, and the values linked to all company employees and expressed clearly its expectations towards safety, it’s time for the last step , which is the never ending process of continuous safety improvement.

Don’t forget to take actions to correct and improve safety working methods, infrastructure, awareness and attitudes that surround the Safety Policy.

THE BOTTOM LINE
Safety Policy is not for the “for safety audit file”, it’s something that should be fully integrated into your company.  Many organizations know this, but how many follow?

Working on a Safety Policy does not stop when it has been issued and posted on the wall in a coffee room.  Safety Policy is the management’s voice for safety in your organization and the only way to ensure consistent and compliant safety behavior.

*– Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity

Bio: 

Roman Gurbanov is a certified Quality and HSE professional with extensive, hands on experience in Oil and Gas Construction sector.

Having made his way from Trainee Quality Engineer to QHSE Manager at the age of 27, Roman stepped further and founded “QHSE Focus Magazine” – First iTunes Magazine for Lean Six Sigma, Quality and HSE Professionals.

By today QHSE Focus Magazine has been ranked in Top 10 Newsstand Business Products Listing at App Store across the world including US, Canada, Australia and Italy as well was featured by Apple as The # 1 Magazine in Business Category.

Roman can be contacted at: roman.gurbanov@qhsefocus.com

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