Well, it’s a good question and the reason why safety sometimes misses the mark. More systems and paperwork do not equate to better safety, and in fact it can lead to the opposite.
Simply, it’s too much safety stuff, i.e., SOPs, Polices, Plans, etc. which are focused on the wrong areas of the business. Creating processes and related work that doesn’t need to exist and which distracts from taking care of what is important, which is critical risks is safety clutter.
Intesafety recently went through a deep dive of all our systems and processes we use to support our clients. We were also guilty of this. We’ve stripped our systems bare to focus on what’s important and in the process made safety more understandable and useable by keeping it simple and real.
A few key questions that may help you establish if you suffer from safety clutter or indeed you are starting out on the safety journey:
To reduce the safety clutter, this is the end 😊.
To summarise, more documentation and paper does not lead to better safety. Keep it simple and real focusing on critical risk and you are on the right track.
Good Luck.
Have you implemented your health and safety system effectively?
At Intesafety, we regularly undertake reviews of PCBU Health and Safety Systems and Processes. This isn’t only for compliance purposes, but also as a measure of whether it “fits” the organisation and is relative to their risk profile.
It’s not surprising that while health and safety systems are developed with the resources and maturity of the organisation in mind, they often lack clarity around how it should be implemented – and more importantly, the functional requirements of the system.
In other words – they’re strong on the what is required, but short on the how, who, when and what tools to assist with!
As Safety Consultants (we prefer the term Safety Partners), providing health and safety plans to organisations that have the internal health and safety expertise and resources to develop the required processes is fine.
However, it would not be appropriate to deliver off-the-shelf systems to (in some cases) naive clients and then provide little or no implementation support or guidance.
We recognise that in some cases the client does not wish to expend additional resources on implementation support for their plans. If this is the case, then we should be questioning the purpose of the plan request in the first place.
If Safety Consultants are delivering plans without assisting clients with the application/implementation of the plan requirements, we should be asking: how is this improving the client’s safety programme and management of risk?
I know – this sounds like a Safety Consultant with a conscience!
At Intesafety, we can provide plans enabling organisations to fast track their health and safety system to ISO 45001 standards. Or, we can provide a small business plan enabling smaller PCBUs to effectively communicate, implement, and monitor their safety systems.
We provide ongoing guidance and support at a level requested by the client, but also highlight the drawbacks where a plan or systems application falls short.
Intesafety is the New Zealand partner for INX InControl. This scalable HSEQ Management software solution enables you to:
The right health and safety software fits easily and conveniently with your management plan requirements.
We offer a free initial discussion around your existing systems and can offer assistance with any development and implementation required.
With the right management system in place, you can drive the correct attitudes and behaviours – we’re here to partner with you to achieve that.
As Workplace Safety Partners, we are fortunate to be able to work in different businesses each day and interact with many leaders and workers in the process. We can see their safety maturity at different stages and partner with them on their journey to develop, implement and sustain effective Health and Safety management solutions.
When we look at a business risk profile, many aspects of the business share some common risks. One of these, of course, is the risk of harm to its workers.
Whether they are employees, contractors, volunteers or in other work arrangements such as a shared workplace, people are fundamental to any business success. Our collective objective as business leaders is to ensure we understand the businesses risks and ensure there are effective controls in place to manage risks as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP).
To achieve this level of effective risk management, as leaders, we need to self-check ourselves and ask the right questions.
There has been plenty of advice floated over the last few years about how to lead workplace safety. Some of this is based on scare tactics and must be confusing for leaders when trying to find their way.
Whether you follow the Safety 1, Safety 2, Safety differently, or the next wave of Safety process, it’s important to ensure you bring your focus to what matters most – your people.
We understand that managing and leading workplace safety can appear to be difficult. As your partner, our mission is to support you with workable solutions, coach your leaders and ensure effective management systems.
We support your leaders and H&S professionals to become true ‘Safety Champions’ with our Workplace Health & Safety Management Leadership Mentoring and Coaching.
Find out more and enquire about this service here.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) have new aviation Safety Management System (SMS) rules soon to be formally implemented (Part 100 Safety Management), which may mean a bit of change for many operators in the aviation industry.
To meet these requirements necessitates a good practice SMS approach. Aviation businesses must have a well-defined and functioning set of company-wide systems and processes as part of their standard framework. This provides for effective, risk-based decision making that improves the overall safety of the business.
It needs to be well documented, communicated to relevant parties, and be actively maintained. This allows for maximised opportunity to continuously improve the overall SMS and its operational application.
Along with meeting good practice requirements, the scope and complexity of the SMS must be developed or scaled to suit the risk profile and size of the business. Simply complying with legislative requirements may not be enough to manage the specific risks involved in your business.
For this reason, Intesafety always scopes out the business risks using a broad-brush risk assessment which then underpins the development of the tailored SMS.
The aviation industry has always had a strong quality management system focus and has had a good level of regulatory oversight. While many operators will do some of these SMS functional requirements already, this new change represents a good opportunity to have a re-think about existing SMS and potentially develop and integrate systems further.
Overall, aviation operators with a good functioning SMS will know it is great for their business.
From many years of experience working in the Australian aviation industry, we know that a good functioning SMS:
In addition to keeping your workers and customers safe, it also creates a lot of efficiencies for the business. You do things smarter, often quicker, and there is less risk of damage to equipment. And of course, workers having the right mindsets and attitudes also reflects a good safety culture.
For aviation businesses, these new rules may mean a step change in maturity is required. You will have to further develop your SMS and workers’ understanding of these new requirements. During this process you must ensure you have committed leadership, good practice systems, worker participation and communication to ensure your SMS is easy to use.
At Intesafety we can partner with you on this journey. Our experienced partners have been through this process many times with a range of different businesses and understand what the journey involves for aviation providers.
We can help manage your data by being smarter with centralisation, so you can easily provide oversight and look for ‘hot spots’ or emerging trends in the business. To achieve this, we have partnered with an INX software HSQ solution called InControl – which is configured specially for the aviation industry.
You can benefit from our experience and we can help shape the correct mindset and understanding for your leaders and workers. We develop workable systems in line with good practice and through our software partner INX, make your SMS add real value to your business.
Contact us today.
Written by Aaron Neighbours, Intesafety General Manager and Principal Health & Safety Partner
Here at Intesafety, we believe that having an effective health and safety system positively influences organisational performance. We base our systems on the OHSAS 18001 format and tailor these elements to suit the organisation size, activities, and associated risk profile.
The health and safety system documents set out the expectations for the management of health and safety. By working with a common system across all its operations, we achieve a standardised and consistent approach between the operating activities.
Each element of the system documentation links to the specific section of the Company Health and Safety Management System (HSMS) Plan – Do – Check – Act (PDCA) continual improvement cycle.
For each of these elements, a section is detailed within the main Health and Safety Management Plan to outline the objectives and key requirements as to how this will be achieved.
The ‘Plan’ stage is directed at establishing a platform describing how we will establish our systems meeting legal and stakeholder requirements. To ensure this occurs, we also assign responsibilities during the ‘Plan’ stage.
‘Do’ is the operational control platform. It details our risk management responsibilities along with specific guidance for operation issues and contractor management.
‘Check’ details the measurement requirements to ensure that the HSMS is operating as intended. This allows routine review and an opportunity to address any non-conformant or undesired trending.
The ‘Act’ stage is the systems sense check and review platform. It requires the organisation to review its application of the HSMS and build improvements into short and long-term planning.
This process enables Intesafety to maintain a compliant system while tailoring bespoke health and safety plans to meet our client needs.
Article by Ken Rees – Intesafety Health and Safety Partner
