Is safety part of your portfolio yet? In more and more organizations, HR is taking over safety management. Fortunately, HR managers make great safety managers! In fact (don’t tell the safety people), they often do a better job than technical safety experts do.
Why are HR managers so good at safety? Technical safety expertise is helpful for understanding and mitigating technical hazards. But safety management is mostly about training and motivating employees—and that’s expertise that HR managers already have.
Safety is a big responsibility, but HR managers can leverage their HR knowledge to become very successful at it.
Special Challenges for HR Managers
It’s always tricky to do a tough job like safety management as a part-time responsibility. You’ll have to devote some attention to drawing boundaries and setting policies that help you to keep control of your time. Here are some suggestions from BLR’s popular Managing Safety from the HR Desk.
- Spread the load. If you are doing safety part-time, you must guard against anyone thinking you are doing it full-time. Clarify responsibilities, and make sure that managers and department heads take their share of the safety responsibilities.
- Rely on your safety committee. Make sure it meets regularly and often. Involve other members in safety management. For example, have members take turns doing the monthly audits, delivering training, conducting accident investigations, and so on.
- Bring others into safety business. For example, perhaps each manager will take a turn walking through another manager’s department, or perhaps another manager will take on running the incentive program.
- Develop detailed policies and procedures. Create checklists, forms, schedules, and SOPs. Make sure that everyone knows what his or her responsibilities are.
- Use outside resources. Purchase training videos, for example, or hire outside consultants for some safety tasks. Contact local fire, police, and emergency personnel to help with disaster preparations or emergency training.
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What Is Your Role as an HR/Safety Manager?
Of course, every worksite is different, with different hazards and different challenges. But consider the following:
Be an advocate for safety
• Get management backing and participation.
• Develop general safety policies.
• Clarify responsibilities.
• Create a safety focus.
Identify and control hazards
• Assess workplace hazards.
• Take necessary steps to eliminate or control them.
Develop and deliver safety training
• Orient new employees.
• Provide new and review training.
• Train for new equipment and new processes.
Motivate safe behavior
• Implement incentive programs.
• Discipline when necessary.
Perform special safety responsibilities
• Chair the safety committee.
• Perform accident reporting and investigation.
• Manage workers’ compensation.
Step by Step to Safety
To get started–or to review what you are doing now–here’s what we recommend:
1. Get a good reference (our editors recommend Managing Safety from the HR Desk). Skim through it to get an idea of what safety management is all about.
2. Familiarize yourself with your organization’s current safety status.
- Review policies on safety, and also any other safety materials such as a safety handbook.
- Get briefed on safety program activities (training, incentive programs, etc.).
- Review the organization’s safety history as found in accident reports, OSHA 300 logs, and workers’ compensation claims.
- Identify safety equipment used, such as fire protection, eyewash, and personal protective equipment.
- Check schedules for training, audits, committees, etc.
- Talk to key managers about safety issues in their departments.
3. Conduct a hazard identification program. Identify what steps are being taken to eliminate or control each hazard.
4. Chart out your new or improved safety plan. Based on your assessment of the program and the hazards, which areas need attention, how badly do they need it, and when do they need it? Devise safety program elements as needed, and set goals for each.
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5. Clarify responsibilities. One problem that can easily sidetrack the best safety efforts is lack of clarity about responsibility. Lay out the safety responsibilities for the following groups:
• Top management
• Safety officer
• Safety committee members
• Managers and supervisors
• Employees with special responsibilities such as first aid, firefighting, or emergency shutdown
• All employees
In each case, try to be specific. Spell out who performs each major safety task and how and where they get the resources to accomplish it.
In the next issue of the Advisor: Selling your safety program to management, and an introduction to an all-in-one Web resource with an extraordinary collection of ready-to-use safety program materials.