In a recent management course, a discussion of the real role of the safety professional took place in class. This was the outcome.
Successful safety and loss prevention programs hinge on safety professionals having defined roles and responsibilities that can make a real impact.
What are those roles and responsibilities?
- Anticipates, identifies, and evaluates hazardous conditions and practices.
- Develops hazard control designs, methods, procedures, and programs.
- Implements, administers, and advises others on hazard controls and hazard control programs.
- Measures, audits, and evaluates the effectiveness of hazard controls and hazard control programs.
Anticipates, identifies, and evaluates hazardous conditions and practices
Anticipation and Identification. A professionally trained safety representative does not have to be in the field to observe a welder to anticipate hazards. Welding, in general, produces the following hazard exposures:
- Airborne contaminants in the form of fumes
- Heat and fires.
- Light radiation to the eye
- Struck by to the eyes and face from chipping.
However, evaluation would be in order regarding the fumes and exposure to the respiratory system. Professionally trained safety personnel would know that any type of welding fume is dangerous. They would have to do an extensive hazard assessment to identify the toxic makeup of the fume and the duration of the exposure. A true safety professional would know how to get assistance from a qualified person for further assistance, such as an industrial hygienist. Together, they can move on to the second responsibility.
Knowing how to evaluate a job and identify hazards that have a potential for severe injury and/or illness is critical. They should be knowledgeable regarding fall hazards, struck by hazards, caught in between hazards and electrical hazards, just to name a few.
Develops hazard control designs, methods, procedures, and programs
Using the Hierarchy of Controls (see image below), safety professionals develop appropriate control measures based on current OSHA, ANSI, and NIOSH recommendations. These controls are often in the form of work processes or methods along with safety and health procedures and programs.
Having the skill to develop and implement worksite analysis and hazard prevention and control is one of the key skills of a safety professional.
Safety professionals utilize job safety analysis (JSA) and job hazard analysis (JHA) to bring workers together in a consensus agreement on how a work task will be addressed and performed in a safe manner.
Safety professionals should possess an above-average knowledge of the required standards for workplace safety that are issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, OSHA.
They should also know of all the resources available for their performance of work, like the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, NIOSH, and other familiar resources.
Implements, administers, and advises the effectiveness of hazard controls and hazard control programs
This role is critical to the success of the safety and health system. Being able to communicate with management and workers is the key to accomplishing this characteristic.
Frontline supervision working with the safety professional is the key. Once the hazard controls are established, frontline supervisors must be trained and educated on the purpose of the hazard control and how to implement the program.
The safety professional who possesses this skill will be a major component of the organization. Training and educating management and workers on how to implement and administer safety controls is the foundation of compliance and achieving an incident-free operation (IFO).
One extremely important takeaway from this component is that safety professionals are not police and should not be put in a position to be enforcement agents.
Measures, audits, and evaluates the effectiveness of hazard controls and hazard control programs.
This role of the safety professional is often overlooked. Having a system for measuring and auditing safety and health hazard control policies gives the operation a report card on how well the hazard control system is working.
The safety and health program audit is the process of gathering information to assess the risks and hazards in the workplace. It is performed by internal and external safety professionals to evaluate the efficiency, reliability, and effectiveness of the health and safety systems of the organization.
A safety audit checklist is used to ensure organizations comply with safety regulatory requirements to identify risks and prevent any work-related incidents, injuries, or fatalities. It is important for an organization to create an audit template that measures a particular component of a safety and health management system.
Audits should be scheduled periodically and ongoing. Personnel responsible for the implementation of the safety and health management system and programs should be in attendance when an audit is performed. Employees and workers who are affected by the safety and health management system and programs should be interviewed on how effective the programs are and can there be any suggestions for improvement.
Safety and health professionals are necessary and important in the safety and health management system. They are the glue that keeps all the above components working together.
Something extra:
To access the forecast for a safety professional, please review the following link: Occupational Health and Safety Specialists and Technicians : Occupational Outlook Handbook: : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (bls.gov)