INTRODUCTION

QUICK WIN SAFETY MANAGEMENT is aimed at entrepreneurs and business managers who want to understand how to protect their business investment, meet their legal obligations and cut their costs.

By using a simple, effective and internationally-recognised safety management model, entrepreneurs and business managers can learn the basics of effective safety management, including the principal safety management components, how they fit together and relate to each other and how improvements in safety performance can be made and measured.

Quick win safety management is designed so that you can dip in and out seeking answers to your top safety management questions, as they arise. Reflecting the International Labour Organization document, Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems - ILO-OSH 2001, there are five sections to this ebook:

• Policy.

• Organisation.

• Planning and implementation.

• Evaluation.

• Action for improvement.

Policy sets out the safety management aims and objectives for your organisation, including how it will meet its legal, financial and moral obligations.

Organisation defines what organisational structures will be put into place in order for your organisation's management and employees to meet the aims and objectives set out in the policy section, including defining management levels, job position responsibilities and accountabilities and reporting hierarchies.

Planning and implementation outlines how the safety management system will be planned and implemented to meet your organisation's policy objectives, including setting measurable objectives and targets, hazard prevention and risk management.

Evaluation outlines the processes in place to evaluate the performance of your organisation's safety management system, to verify whether the aims and objectives set out in the policy section are being met.

Action for improvement shows how your organisation can learn from its own failings or mistakes within its safety management system and, where these have been identified, how improvements can be made.

In addition, using the grid in the Contents, you can search for questions and answers across a range of topics, including:

• Communication and training.

• Contractors.

• Definitions.

• Employees.

• Management.

• Systems and procedures.

• Standards.

And, where appropriate, answers cross-reference to other questions for a fuller explanation or more information.

Enjoy this ebook - I wish you lots of quick wins and success in managing safety in your organisation!

_POLICY

Q1. What is health and safety?

'Health' and 'safety' are familiar terms, and most business people know what they are and how to measure them. For this book, within the context of safety management, health is defined as 'occupational health', the health of people in the workplace such that "people leave their workplace no less healthy than when they arrived".

Safety is variously defined as 'secure from harm', 'free from danger' and 'no longer dangerous'. Since safety never can be absolute, for QUICK WIN SAFETY MANAGEMENT, it is defined as "the reduction of risk to a level that is as low as reasonably practicable".

Taking these definitions for health and safety into consideration when implementing and operating a safety management system (SMS) should allow management to meet the moral, legal and financial obligations that companies have under current health and safety legislation.

Q2. What is a safety management system?

An effective safety management system is a documented process for the "protection of workers from hazards and the elimination of work-related injuries, ill health, diseases, incidents and deaths"^[1].

For any organisation, a SMS should include:

• The development of a safety policy that outlines the organisation's aims and aspirations.

• Setting goals and objectives across all management levels to improve safety performance.

• Developing a risk assessment process to identify, assess and control hazards.

• Ensuring appropriate training and competency levels appropriate for the size and nature of the business.

• A system for reporting accidents, incidents and other non-conformities within the organisation, and for the analysis and implementation of corrective actions required to prevent their recurrence.

• Documented procedures for all work tasks and the development of permitted systems of work as required.

• Audit and review process for the ongoing assessment of the safety management system.

QUICK WIN SAFETY MANAGEMENT uses the internationally-recognised safety management model based on the International Labour Organization document, Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems - ILO-OSH 2001. However, it is important to remember that ILO-OSH 2001 is not legally binding and is not intended to replace national laws, regulations and accepted standards in your jurisdiction(s). In general, legislation does not prescribe the management systems that employers should implement to comply with their OSH requirements but, as a minimum, your safety management system must meet the legal occupational safety and health law that applies to your activities at all of your locations.

• [1] ILO-OSH 2001, Section 1 Objectives