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Safety managers:
Leading and managing for health and safety - what to look for
Use the following examples of effective
and ineffective 
health and safety management to check if you are doing what you need to do on leadership.
A longish thread
Leading and managing for health and safety - what to look for
Use the following examples of effective
and ineffective health and safety management to check if you are doing what you need to do on leadership.A longish thread
What it looks like when done badly or not at all.
Leaders:
- Set no health and safety priorities
- Don’t understand the need to maintain oversight
- Don’t meet their own organisation’s standards/procedures, eg wearing correct PPE on site/shop floor
- Lack of engagement with health and safety by workers
- Set no health and safety priorities
- Don’t understand the need to maintain oversight
- Don’t meet their own organisation’s standards/procedures, eg wearing correct PPE on site/shop floor
- Lack of engagement with health and safety by workers
- Health and safety is seen as an add-on, irrelevance or nuisance
- Poor incident history (accidents, near misses, plant damage or other indicators, eg poor maintenance, poor housekeeping)
- Poor incident history (accidents, near misses, plant damage or other indicators, eg poor maintenance, poor housekeeping)
Management of health and safety:- Incomplete or missing paperwork. Does not link to actual risks in workplace
- Confusion over roles, inaction as no one takes responsibility for health and safety, distrust of management motives
- Widespread, routine violations of procedures. No oversight of contractors
- Information is not passed on, not understood, or not implemented
- Managers are unaware of employee concerns or do not respond appropriately
- Lessons are never learned
- Information is not passed on, not understood, or not implemented
- Managers are unaware of employee concerns or do not respond appropriately
- Lessons are never learned
What it looks like when done effectively:
Leaders:
- Maintain attention on the significant risks and implementation of adequate controls
- Demonstrate their commitment by their actions; they are aware of the key health and safety issues
- Maintain attention on the significant risks and implementation of adequate controls
- Demonstrate their commitment by their actions; they are aware of the key health and safety issues
- Ensure consultation with the workforce on health and safety
- Challenge unsafe behaviour in a timely way
- Challenge unsafe behaviour in a timely way
Management of health and safety:- A systematic approach is used to manage health and safety
- People understand the risks and control measures associated with their work
- Contractors adhere to the same standards
- Appropriate documentation is available: current, organised, relevant
- People understand their roles and those of others
- Performance is measured - to check controls are working and standards are being implemented, and to learn from mistakes after things go wrong.
- People understand their roles and those of others
- Performance is measured - to check controls are working and standards are being implemented, and to learn from mistakes after things go wrong.
BONUS: Go beyond compliance.
- If a formal system (such as ISO 45001, ISO 9001) is used, has it been externally certified?
- Health and safety is integrated into business processes
- Benchmarking is used to compare performance with others
- Supply chains are influenced to improve health and safety
- Health and safety is integrated into business processes
- Benchmarking is used to compare performance with others
- Supply chains are influenced to improve health and safety
End of thread
