Safety Management - Essay Example

Safety Management Implementation of safety management does not solely rely on the safety manager, but a joint force of planning, review and monitoring of the safety objective by both the safety manager and the other employees. In addition to annual safety management review, safety management is a continuous process of objective setting, progress assessment and ongoing coaching provision and acting on feedbacks so as to ensure that safety objectives and goals are met (Dernbach 556). This paper gives an action plan to meet management expectations concerning safety management and attainment of fifty percent reduction of incident rates in an organization. Establishment of an effective safety action plan requires resources and time, and therefore, support of the senior management. When developing a new action plan, an organization can have a committee comprising of employees, board members and managers to facilitate acceptance, resistance to change reduction and increase chances of safety action plan success. Management support on a safety action plan remains essential in ensuring safety recognition, adequate performance results and necessary support or training provision to employee so as to improved safety, therefore, resulting in a safe working environment (Binkley 157). Whether the action plans entails introduction of a new action plan or modification of old process, it is essential for the safety manager to communicate the steps and the purpose of the safety action plan process before implementation. It is also essential that a safety manger reviews the performance management system of the organization and make necessary adjustments. As mentioned earlier, safety management is a continuous process of planning, monitoring and review of processes; a safety action plan should be based on this continuity by first planning, where expectations are first identified, clarified and agreed upon. The planning process should also include identification on how results of the plan will be measured, agreement on the process of monitoring and action plan documentation (Ruding 15). The monitoring part should include evaluation of the action plan progress and the taking of corrective actions or change implementation where necessary. The review part of the action plan should include annual evaluations and reviews of the attained objectives and setting of new objectives and action plans. The plan The planning phase of an action plan remains to be a collaborative effort of the employees and the management over what the employees expect regarding safety and determination whether such course of action are in line with the prevailing safety standards. It also involves the development of a safety plan outlining the tasks and deliverables, expected outcomes and safety standard to be used in the evaluative process. It is essential during planning phase that the safety manger identifies major areas that will be key safety objectives for the year. Area choice will largely depend on; the organizational strategic plans, employees desire to improve safety and the need to improve certain risk associated areas. Failure by the employees to satisfy the critical set objectives will result in the failure of the action plan. The trickiest part during the planning phase remains to be the identification of clear and appropriate language to illustrate action plan objectives and success indicators. Safety managers should ensure that objectives are reflected on everyday tasks that are in most cases overlooked as normal way of doing work and considered to be adhering to safety standards. The action plan objectives should be in line with employee’s capability and experience, and there should be no insuperable force outside the employee’s control that hinders safety accomplishments. The safety manager should be clear about the time frame over which safety action plans are to be achieved, objectives should be set in a way to be completed at the end of performance review period. Monitoring The effectiveness of safety action plan depends on employees and continuous monitoring of the safety progress. Day-day monitoring does not mean looking at every aspect of safety during employee execution of tasks and activities. Safety managers should not micro manage their employees, but focus the safety outcome as well as individual employee behavior, and workforce dynamics affecting the safety of the working environment. During monitoring phase, the safety manager should; assess safety objectives attainment process, identify barriers to the accomplishment of the safety action plan objectives and share feedback relating to progress and goal attainment (Salas& Frush 83). Action plan management includes employee coaching to address issues and concerns pertaining to safety resulting in a safe working environment. Coaching involves provision of direction, support and guidance on assigned tasks and activities. A safety manager as a coach needs to identify the risky area in the working environment and working with the employees identifies the best ways of reducing safety relates incidents in such areas. The role of the safety manager is to demonstrate safety skills and work in giving employee feedbacks concerning safety and progress of the attainment of the action plan objectives. The strategic skill of any management is the ability to ask questions and provision of feedbacks in the most appropriate manner. Review Action plan assessment during periodic meetings is an opportunity to summarize, review and highlight safety progress over the past review period. Employee self assessment is an accepted method in safety management. By using safety action plan set objectives with an assessment form as a guide, the workforce can preview safety objectives status and perform adequate adjustments long before review meetings. The process helps in safety gap identification and correction, and therefore, the safety manager’s views during review meeting will only provide an in depth discussions of safety issues. Safety managers should review safety performance documentations and notes throughout the year so as to effectively assess action plan’s objective progress. Only safety issues discussed with employees in the meeting should form part of the assessment documentation. This ensures that safety managers deal with safety problems as they arise and eliminate any surprises during the safety assessment meetings. During safety assessment meetings the safety manager should summarize safety goals accomplished during the year relative to objectives that were set in the action plan. This includes capturing major expected results, shortfalls and accomplishments for each set objective, documentation of challenges encountered over the year concerning safety issues helps in identification of area for training and coaching. Identification and discussion of unforeseen barriers to the objective achievement also helps a great deal in the attainment of the goal the following year. Safety managers and the employees should sign the assessment form; this shows commitment and acknowledgement to both parties’ involvement and dedication in working toward the set safety goals. Any employee’s disagreement with the safety assessment provides opportunities for comment attachment to safety assessment. The safety manager should ensure that every employee receives a copy of the safety assessment form and the signed form filed in the respective employee’s file. Works cited Binkley, Marian. Risks, dangers, and rewards in the Nova Scotia offshore fishery. Montréal [Que.: McGill-Queens University Press, 1995. Print. Dernbach, John C.. Stumbling toward sustainability. Washington, DC: Environmental Law Institute, 2002. Print. Ruding, Eric. Middle management in action practical approaches to school improvement. London: Routledge, 2000. Print. Salas, Eduardo, and Karen Frush. Improving Patient Safety Through Teamwork and Team Training. Oxford: Oxford University Press, USA, 2012. Print. Read More