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IT’S WINNING TIME: SAFETY AND HEALTH MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
by Alex Martin
We have all seen that sports movie. You know? The one where the new coach comes in with a new vision for the perennially losing team; the players have a mini revolt; they have some shared experience; and then eventually they all learn to work together towards their goal of winning the championship. Do you know what these movies are about?
No, it’s not high school football, or race car driving, or a junior hockey team. They’re about developing a strong culture— which makes me think of
how companies develop strong safety cultures. All of
the coaches in those movies have their own “systems” or blueprints for success. Some of them believe in strong defense, simple offense, aggressive driving or whatever the case may be.
Just like these coaching systems, safety management systems have blueprints as well. An effective Safety and Health Management System
is made of at least five parts: Management Commitment, Employee Involvement, Safety and Health Training, Worksite Analysis and Hazard Prevention and Control.
Management Commitment should be considered the foundation of an effective Safety and Health Management System. According to MIOSHA “Management commitment provides the motivating
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force, resources, and
controlling activities within the organization1.” Management can set the tone for safety by making it a priority, committing resources- both time and financial, towards safety efforts and insisting that work activities throughout the organization are done with safety in the forefront.
Ultimately, management must be resolute in its stand for safety. This is just like in those old sports movies. The coach faces some external challenge (its almost always the threat
of termination after a lack of success), but stays committed to making the team a winner and doing it the right way. Examples of management commitment can be found throughout the BWL, but one that stands out is in the newest version of the strategic plan.
In the strategic plan the BWL, under the leadership of our management, has set the goal and embraced the strategy of “cultivating a generative safety culture2.”
The second element of a winning safety and health management program is employee involvement. If management sets the tone, the employees are the ones that they set it for. According to OSHA “to be effective, any safety and health program needs the meaningful participation of workers and their representatives. Workers have much to gain from a successful program, and the most to lose if the program
fails3.” This is the equivalent to the part in the movies where the players and coaches
find a way to work together toward their shared goals. In the movies the players and coaches are usually bound together by their desire to win; at the BWL we are bound together by our shared desire for everyone to be safe!
At this company, the BWL Safety Committee is one of many examples of employee involvement. This committee
is composed of both, non- bargaining and bargaining committee members, and works together to draft safety manual rules, create new safety initiatives and celebrate safety successes.
Safety and health training is the third element of an effective safety management system. The sports movie equivalent of this in our extended metaphor is normally glossed over. This is the portion of the movie where they play an original song from the soundtrack and show a
few clips from practices. While this is a movie shortcut, in reality training is not cut short at the BWL. The BWL states its commitment to training in the Safety and Health Policy. The policy reads that one of the objectives of the company is to “promote safety awareness to all employees through training4.” OSHA endorses the BWL’s stand on safety training saying that “Education and training are important tools
for informing workers and managers about hazards and controls so they can work more