SAFETY LEADERSHIP AND
MANAGEMENT-1
Lesson 1: Duties, rights and responsibilities of
safety professionals
WEEK 1
About Modules
Welcome to «safety leadership and management» lesson.
This lesson; you will learn duties, rights and responsibilities of
safety professionals and how to promote and protect workers
health and safety; the importance of safety leaders and strong
safety management systems.
Now let's start with our first lesson.
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Content
In this lesson we will learn the following;
• What are the OHS Management System Benefits
• The New Structure of OHS Management System According to ISO
45001
• The Role of Leadership and Commitment on OHSMS
• What are the Responsibilities of OHSMS for all Levels?
• The Role of Participation of Workers
• The Importance of Communication and Consultation
• Visible leadership for OHS Management
• 7 Best Practices for Leaders
• Safety Governance
• 5 Stages of Safety Governance
• Summary
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What is OH&S Management System?
An organization is responsible for the occupational health
and safety of workers and others who can be affected by its
activities. This responsibility includes promoting and
protecting their physical and mental health.
OH&S management system is intended to enable an
organization to provide safe and healthy workplaces,
prevent work-related injury and ill health, and continually
improve its OH&S performance.
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The Benefits of OHS Management System
• The benefits derived from better OHS management
performance include:
– increased safety awareness among personnel
– a systematic approach to identifying and controlling OHS
risks
– efficient project performance, improved employee
participation, satisfaction and morale
– competitive advantage and improved corporate standing
– improved relationships between stakeholders, such as
clients, contractors, subcontractors, consultants, suppliers,
employees and unions.
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OHS Management System StructureNew Approach by ISO 45001
The numbers given in brackets refer to the clause numbers in this IS
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Leadership and Commitment
The definition of top management : person or group of people
who directs and controls an organization at the highest level.
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Leadership and Commitment
• Top management shall demonstrate leadership and
commitment with respect to the OH&S management system
by:
– taking overall responsibility and accountability for the
prevention of work-related injury and ill health as well as
the provision of safe and healthy workplaces and activities;
– ensuring that the OH&S policy and related OH&S
objectives are established and are compatible with the
strategic direction of the organization;
– ensuring the integration of the OH&S management system
requirements into the organization’s business processes;
Leadership and Commitment
– ensuring that the resources needed to establish,
implement, maintain and improve the OH&S management
system are available;
– communicating the importance of effective OH&S
management and of conforming to the OH&S;
– ensuring that the OH&S management system achieves its
intended outcome(s);
– directing and supporting persons to contribute to the
effectiveness of the OH&S management system;
– ensuring and promoting continual improvement;
– supporting other relevant management roles to
demonstrate their leadership as it applies to their areas of
responsibility;
Leadership and Commitment
– developing, leading and promoting a culture in the
organization that supports the intended outcomes of the
OH&S management system;
– protecting workers from reprisals when reporting
incidents, hazards, risks and opportunities;
– ensuring the organization establishes and implements a
process(es) for consultation and participation of workers;
– supporting the establishment and functioning of health
and safety committees.
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Organizational Rules and Authorities
• Top management shall ensure that the responsibilities and
authorities for relevant roles within the OH&S management
system are assigned and communicated at all levels within the
organization and maintained as documented information.
• Workers at each level of the organization shall assume
responsibility for those aspects of OH&S management system
over which they have control.
• Top management shall assign the responsibility and authority
for:
– ensuring that the OH&S management system conforms to
the requirements of this document;
– reporting on the performance of the OH&S management
system to top management.
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Responsibilities concerning OHS
Managers are accountable for implementing legislations concerning health and
safety, health and safety is the joint responsibility of management and workers,
with each individual having specific responsibilities.
What are individual responsibilities?
• Health and safety responsibility is not just an extra part of an employee's job
but an integral, full-time component of each individual's responsibilities.
•
Responsibility and authority can be delegated to subordinates. It is important
to note that, while some responsibilities can be delegated, managers remain
accountable for seeing that they are carried out.
•
Individual responsibilities apply to every employee in the workplace. When a
safety coordinator or committee has been appointed, it is best to spell out
his/her/their responsibilities as well. All employees will then know exactly
what is expected of each individual in health and safety terms.
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Responsibilities concerning OHS
Responsibilities of safety coordinators/safety managers:
• attending health and safety committee meetings as a resource
person
• to advise all employees on health and safety matters
• coordinating interdepartmental health and safety activities
• collecting and analyzing health and safety statistics
• conducting research on special problems
• organizing health and safety training for employees when
necessary.
Employee responsibilities:
• Participation in joint health and safety committees.
• Following safe work procedures
• Reporting unsafe acts and conditions, injury or illness immediately,
which can be avoided by proper use of personal protective
equipment.
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Responsibilities concerning OHS
Management responsibilities:
• Promoting health and safety awareness through training workers
on health and safety regulations.
• Regular inspection of the workplace, correcting unsafe work
practices and conditions
• Reporting and investigating all accidents or incidents so as to
minimize or eliminate hazards.
• Supporting everyday health and safety activities such as ensuring
personal protective equipment is available
• Provision of medical and first aid facilities.
• Monitoring and evaluating occupational health and safety
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Responsibilities concerning OHS
Activities that might be implemented by a Health and Safety Committee (or
coordinator)
• participate in development and implementation of programs to protect
the employees safety and health,
• deal with employee complaints and suggestions concerning safety and
health,
• ensure the maintenance and monitoring of injury and work hazard
records,
• monitor and follow-up hazard reports and recommend action,
• set up and promote programs to improve employee training and
education,
• participate in all safety and health inquiries and investigations,
• consult with professional and technical experts,
• participate in resolving workplace refusals,
• make recommendations to management for accident prevention and
safety program activities, and
• monitor effectiveness of safety programs and procedures.
Consultation and Participation of Workers
•
•
The organization shall establish, implement and maintain a process(es) for
consultation and participation of workers at all applicable levels and
functions, and, where they exist, workers’ representatives, in the
development, planning, implementation, performance evaluation and
actions for improvement of the OH&S management system.
The organization shall:
– provide mechanisms, time, training and resources necessary for
consultation and participation;
– Worker representation can be a mechanism for consultation and
participation.
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Consultation and Participation of Workers
•
•
•
Obstacles and barriers can include failure to respond to worker inputs or
suggestions, language or literacy barriers, reprisals or threats of reprisals
and policies or practices that discourage or penalize worker participation.
Emphasizing the consultation and participation of non-managerial workers
is intended to apply to persons carrying out the work activities, but is not
intended to exclude, for example, managers who are impacted by work
activities or other factors in the organization.
It is recognized that the provision of training at no cost to workers and the
provision of training during working hours, where possible, can remove
significant barriers to worker participation.
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Participation of Workers
• Nobody wants accidents to happen and to prevent accidents a
workplace doesn’t have to be turned upside down.
• It doesn’t necessarily need to cost a lot of money or require a large
commitment of resources.
• An organisation needs only to apply recognized preventive
principles, and at all times the demonstration from management of
personal concern for employee safety and health as the priority in
the workplace.
• If the workplace management is not interested in preventing
employee injury and illness, nobody else is likely to be.
• The preparation of a Occupational Health and Safety Plan allows
management to formally present its commitment to its employees
and to provide concrete strategies to achieve health and safety for
all staff.
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Participation of Workers
• Involvement of all staff in planning and carrying out health and safety
activities developed to achieve the goal and objectives of workplace
health and safety program will help to ensure its effectiveness.
• Sharing of responsibility between management and employees will help
to ensure that health and safety are considered in all aspects of the work.
• A plan for prevention of accidents and injuries is important but workers
exposed to poor work procedures such as improper use of computers
(broken chairs, inadequate light, cables etc.) may suffer poor health in
conjunction with routine work as well as by accident. The extent of the
exposure or of the harm that may result may not be realised without a
regular and detailed analysis of hazards in the workplace as part of an
Occupational Health and Safety Plan (OHS Plan). The effect may not
appear immediately, but it may be fatal in the long run.
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Participation of Workers
• A plan that includes prevention of these “health hazard
exposures” as well as accidents and considers the specific
risks within individual workplaces is needed.
• Each workplace is different. A small business in which the
primary hazards may be equipment, toxic materials and
precise work procedures will have different preventive
strategies to a social welfare or health care Organisation, in
which work procedures with clients may be less clearly
defined and the stresses involved in “helping” professional
become more relevant.
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Why is communication and consultation
important?
• Workforce participation in planning and
managing OHS improvements is an effective
means of tapping into the knowledge of
employees and service providers about their
activities and the ways in which OHS
management and performance can be improved.
• Organisations must consult with their employees
and service providers to enable them to
contribute to decisions that may impact on health
and safety at work.
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Communication and consultation are important to
make sure employees and service providers share
information, are provided with information about,
and have input into, decisions relating to:
hazards associated with their work
OHS risks they may be exposed to
measures to eliminate or minimise that exposure
the work site arrangements for the management of
OHS
• the procedure for reporting hazards to management.
•
•
•
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Exhibiting Visible Leadership for Safe
Workplace
• Encouraging the management team (from the most
senior down) to exhibit visible leadership
commitment to a safe workplace.
• Leaders, while limited in their ability to enact the
particulars of day-to-day work, make decisions about
resources and organizational direction - and impact
the culture and climate in which safety activities must
occur.
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7 Best Practices for Leaders
• Vision - The effective leader is able to "see"
what safety excellence would look like and
conveys that vision in a compelling way
throughout the organization. This leader acts
in a way that communicates high personal
standards in safety, helps others question and
rethink their assumptions about safety, and
describes a compelling picture of what the
future can be.
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7 Best Practices for Leaders
• Credibility - The effective leader fosters a high
level of trust in his or her peers and reports.
This leader is willing to admit mistakes with
others, advocate for direct reports and the
interests of the group, and giving honest
information about safety even it if is not well
received.
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7 Best Practices for Leaders
• Collaboration - The effective leader works
well with other people, promotes cooperation
and collaboration in safety, actively seeks
input from people on issues that affect them,
and encourages others to implement their
decisions and solutions for improving safety.
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7 Best Practices for Leaders
• Communication - The effective leader is a
great communicator. He or she encourages
people to give honest and complete
information about safety even if the
information is unfavorable. This leader keeps
people informed about the big picture in
safety, and communicates frequently and
effectively up, down, and across the
organization.
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7 Best Practices for Leaders
• Action-Orientation - The effective leader is
proactive rather than reactive in addressing
safety issues. This leader gives timely,
considered responses for safety concerns,
demonstrates a sense of personal urgency and
energy to achieve safety results, and
demonstrates a performance- driven focus by
delivering results with speed and excellence.
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7 Best Practices for Leaders
• Accountability - He or she gives people a fair
appraisal of the efforts and results in safety,
clearly communicates people's roles in the
safety effort, and fosters the sense that every
person is responsible for the level of safety in
their organizational unit.
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Safety Governance
Safety Governance Pathway to enable organisations to identify the
maturity of their safety governance frameworks.
By identifying where an organisation sits on the pathway, it enables
insights to be gained into how directors and senior executives can
progressively and effectively improve safety governance in the
organisations they govern and lead.
Safety governance as the relationship between boards and senior
executives in the safety leadership of an organisation. It provides:
• The structure for setting the vision and commitment to health and safety
• Agreement on how health and safety objectives will be met
• The framework for monitoring performance
• A means for ensuring legal obligations are met.
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Five Stages of Safety Governance
Transactional
Compliant
Focused
Pro-active
Integrated
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Five Stages of Safety Governance
ü Transactional
Boards at the transactional stage of health and safety
governance generally only get engaged after there has been an
incident and tend not to make disclosures about performance in
their annual reports. These are the least effective boards when it
comes to health and safety, because they view it as a
management responsibility.
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Five Stages of Safety Governance
ü Compliant
Many boards react to new legislation by focusing on compliance.
They are aware of their legal duties and try to ensure basic
health and safety reporting, often focusing on lag indicators.
Health and safety might be referred to in annual reports very
briefly. But overall, legal compliance is the main driver, rather
than a desire to understand the importance of safety leadership
and its impact on safety culture.
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Five Stages of Safety Governance
ü Focused
Once a compliance framework for safety is in place, boards often
focus on going beyond mere legal compliance. Health and safety
might be included in the board charter, a vision and targets
might be set, and lead indicators introduced. Often safety
systems and processes are disclosed in annual reports.
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Five Stages of Safety Governance
ü Pro-active
Boards comfortable with their role in safety leadership become
more pro-active. They might seek greater health and safety
performance from their executive teams and establish health
and safety sub-committees. The Chair often makes a personal
commitment to health and safety in the annual report, and
public disclosures might include both lag and lead indicators.
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Five Stages of Safety Governance
ü Integrated
By this stage, the link between high health and safety
performance and business excellence is understood and
accepted by the board and senior executives. Clear statements
about the board’s role in safety are made in annual reports.
Safety-related disclosures – good and bad – are honest and
transparent. These are the hallmarks of the most effective safety
governance frameworks, where boards ensure health and safety
is completely integrated with operations.
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