DB 1 WPS

OSH 2301, Introduction to Workplace Safety 1

Course Learning Outcomes for Unit I Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:

1. Describe safety-related roles and responsibilities of employees. 1.1 Identify the ways employees can contribute to the safety of a team or program. 1.2 Identify the term that refers to the seriousness of a loss or mishap.

Required Unit Resources Chapter 1: Safety Management Unit Lesson Doctors, lawyers, teachers, carpenters, electricians—most people will be able to close their eyes and picture individuals in these professions, and when asked, they would be able to describe what each type of professional does. However, this is not usually true concerning a safety professional.

UNIT I STUDY GUIDE The Safety Professional—Roles and Responsibilities

(“Construction,” 2017)

(American Public Power Association, 2017)

(Brosy, 2018)

(Gray, 2017)

(Hunters Race, 2017)

(Nguyen, 2017)

Doctors, lawyers, teachers, carpenters, electricians—these are all common occupations that are familiar to everyone, but what does a safety professional do?

OSH 2301, Introduction to Workplace Safety 2

UNIT x STUDY GUIDE Title

What does a safety professional do? When asked, people will give responses such as keeping people safe or ensuring employees follows the safety rules. However, if you think about it logically, these should be the responsibilities of everyone in every organization, not just the safety professional! The safety professional’s role is to manage safety, just as any other element of the business is managed. Safety professionals are responsible for coordinating the resources that frontline supervisors need in order to implement a successful safety management system. They also act as advisors or consultants to mid-level and upper management, guiding them in the process of implementing a safety management system. The structure of the safety management system may vary slightly depending on the basis on which it is developed. Consensus standards or published programs such as the following can be used as a basis when developing a safety management system:

• the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) / American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) American National Standard for Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems Z10.0;

• the British Standards Institution (BSI), Occupational Health and Safety System Standard OHSAS 18001;

• the International Organization for Standardization, Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems;

• the National Safety Council’s Nine Elements of a Successful Safety and Health System; and • the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Voluntary Protection Program (VPP).

All of the above differ slightly, but they all generally require similar elements, including management commitment, employee involvement, hazard recognition and control, and training. Implementing these standards across the various levels of the organization will take some persuasion at every level, from top management down to frontline employees.

A key element of implementation is securing resources in terms of employee time as well as finances. When presenting a case to upper management for the implementation of a formal safety and health management system, it will be important to capture the direct costs of injures, such as insurance premiums; legal fees; and other medical costs such as surgery, rehabilitation, and physical therapy. It will also to address the potential indirect costs. These indirect costs include impacts to the business in reduced head count when employees are out, time spent investigating incidents, negative impact on employee morale, increased

OSH 2301, Introduction to Workplace Safety 3

UNIT x STUDY GUIDE Title

overtime, risk for equipment failure, and the social license of the organization, which is how the local community views a business. Looking at a complete picture of the possible impacts that injuries can have on an organization will enable top management to see the value of committing resources to a safety management system. Let’s look at an example: Suppose a maintenance employee tears a rotator cuff working on a piece of equipment and is required to be off work for six weeks. The direct medical costs of this are evident—a costly surgery followed by numerous physical therapy sessions. However, the indirect impacts are actually much larger. The maintenance department now has one fewer employee for six weeks, which will result in one of two scenarios: work not being completed, causing increased risk for equipment failure or downtime, or increased overtime for the remaining employees that is costly and has the potential for resulting in additional injuries or poor workmanship because of exhaustion. This can begin to wear down the remaining employees, thereby, adversely impacting morale. As we see in our example, a single injury has the potential to result in significant indirect costs to the organization. Once management is on board with the implementation of a safety management system, the next step is to work with the employees to ensure that they are involved. The employees, especially those on the front line and their supervisors, must be engaged early in the development of a safety management system. These are the employees who will be affected most by any changes brought about because of new policies, procedures, or requirements. These all reflect change, and change can be hard. Change is generally more acceptable to those who can influence that change. Getting direct feedback from the employees early in the process allows them to have a voice. This can be done in many ways; one of the most effective ways can be the formation of a health and safety committee. This committee should be cross-functional and comprised of employees from all departments and levels of the organization. These committees can be used to develop new safety-related policies and procedures and to obtain feedback from the workforce. It can also be effective to form subcommittees to focus on specific areas that need physical items produced, such as a written plan. An example of this would be the formation of a subcommittee within the health and safety committee whose focus would be the development of an emergency action plan. This group can focus its efforts on preparing the plan as well as the plan’s rollout, including training. The subcommittee can present its progress to the larger health and safety committee and gain consensus on their decisions. In doing this, the employees will own their specific component of the safety program and will work to ensure that it is a success. As the safety professional, you can support these committees by outlining the regulatory and organization requirements while letting the employees develop a program to meet those requirements. While developing a safety management system cannot be done by the safety professional alone, he or she does have a significant role in it, especially from a technical point of view. The safety professional must have the skills, abilities, and expertise to manage the program implementation. This starts with the ability to communicate diverse types of information effectively to all levels of the organization. This communication is dynamic, changing in content, scope, and format depending on the audience. Safety professionals must be able to develop and deliver clear, concise summaries intended for top-level executives while also being able to prepare detail-oriented, topic-specific training materials intended for frontline employees. They will also be required to prepare executive-level memos that provide a cursory review of safety performance while also being required to prepare detailed reports such as those required by regulatory agencies and insurance providers. Safety professionals must also be able to communicate verbally with mid-level management—most importantly frontline supervisors—when outlining their roles and responsibilities in the safety management system.

Safety professionals attend a safety training session, which requires effective verbal and written communication (Oregon Department of Transportation, 2012)

OSH 2301, Introduction to Workplace Safety 4

UNIT x STUDY GUIDE Title

To communicate effectively, safety professionals must be confident in their own skills and abilities. The necessary skills and abilities are built on a solid foundation in the behavioral, technical, legal, and regulatory requirements of health and safety. This requires knowledge from many disciplines, including psychology, anatomy, physiology, physics, biology, chemistry, and engineering. This knowledge will provide the safety professional the ability to interpret local, state, and federal regulations, including those published by OSHA and the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). These are the minimum requirements to which the organization must adhere. The safety professional must have a thorough understanding of these requirements and be able to communicate to employees in the organization how they can be integrated into their daily activities. Health and safety requirements cannot be an additional requirement for employees; they must be a normal part of their daily routine. Getting a formal education in occupational safety and health or a related field is a great start to establishing this foundation. However, a successful safety professional must be committed to lifelong learning. This can be accomplished through professional safety organizations such as the Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP), American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP), American Board of Industrial Hygiene (ABIH), and the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH). These organizations offer memberships and certifications with opportunities for continuous education. This is important because the field of health and safety is ever-evolving, a strong safety professional will need to stay current. Finally, the safety professional must be persistent, constantly pushing for continuous improvement. Working with the appropriate level of leadership, the safety professional must establish realistic and achievable, yet aggressive, goals for continuous safety improvement. The key is setting goals that will drive continuous improvement while maintaining a level of realism. While it is obvious that any organization implementing a safety management system wants zero injuries, it may not be a realistic goal when a program is in the very early stages of its development. For example, a facility that has consistently maintained a total recordable case rate of greater than five for the past 10 years, along with a days-of-restricted work activity or job transfer (DART) incident rate of more than two for that same time period, will be unlikely to reduce those values to zero in the first year of implementing a safety management system. Setting unrealistic goals can frustrate employees. For example, suppose a facility management team rolls out a safety management system initiative on January 2 with enthusiasm and employee support. However, they only provide one measurable goal: zero injuries. The employees will strive to achieve that goal, implementing the safety management system. Six months later, after a significant amount of challenging work by employees at all levels, the facility has three recordable incidents for that year. Without additional context, this can be viewed by the employees as a failure, resulting in their becoming disengaged in the initiative. This is the danger of only measuring performance on lagging indicators, which are things that have already happened. It is possible that of those three injuries, none resulted in DART that would indicate that the injuries at the facility may be less severe. Severity can be measured by injuries that result in DART. If using lagging indicators, such as injuries, targets should be set on reducing the severity and frequency of injuries, using the facility’s history as a baseline and targeting incremental improvements. However, it can be more beneficial to focus on leading indicators, or things that are yet to happen. They can be targeted for improvement. Examples of leading indicators could be safety meeting attendance, the number of safety hazards identified by employees, positive safety behavior observations, or the number of safety trainings offered. These are metrics employees at all levels can directly impact and help improve if they are committed to a successful safety management system. Whatever the goals, it will be critical for the safety professional to keep the management team, as well as the frontline employees, aware as the day-to-day operations take place so that the organization will continue to work toward them. Continuous improvement is the key to reaching advanced levels in safety management, and it can lead to a zero-injury workplace if implemented correctly.

OSH 2301, Introduction to Workplace Safety 5

UNIT x STUDY GUIDE Title

References American Public Power Association. (2017, October 30). Bryan Municipal Utilities [Photograph]. Unsplash.

https://unsplash.com/photos/fHLdXfURDhA Brosy, M. (2018, July 30). Doctor with a stethoscope [Photograph]. Unsplash.

https://unsplash.com/photos/hIgeoQjS_iE Gray, A. (2017, September 19). Man, male, saw and workshop [Photograph]. Unsplash.

https://unsplash.com/photos/WEWTGkPUVT0 Hunters Race. (2017, October 10). This is a shot of the owner of New Zealand watch company – Hunters

Race [Photograph]. Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/MYbhN8KaaEc Nguyen, T. (2017, November 25). Physics teacher [Photograph]. Unsplash.

https://unsplash.com/photos/TVSRWmnW8Us Oregon Department of Transportation. (2012, April 9). B210 safety training (7256587444) [Photograph].

Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:B210_Safety_Training_(7256587444).jpg

Suggested Unit Resources You are encouraged to read the following chapter in your textbook for insight on the role of communication in safety management. Chapter 2: Communication In order to access the following resources, click the links below. Read pp. 9–10 in the following document. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (2016). Recommended practices for safety and health

programs (OSHA Report No. 3885). https://www.osha.gov/shpguidelines/docs/OSHA_SHP_Recommended_Practices.pdf

ClickView Pty Limited (Producer). (2010). Conclusion: Why OH&S is important to everyone (Segment 6 of 7)

[Video]. In Workplace health and safety. Films on Demand. https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?auth=CAS&url=http://fod.infobase.com/PortalPla ylists.aspx?wID=273866&xtid=129322&loid=459285

For a transcript of this segment, click the Transcript tab next to the video in the Films on Demand database. The following article provides a perspective on how executive-level leadership develops safety improvement strategies. IHI/NPSF Lucian Leape Institute. (2017). Leading a Culture of Safety: a Blueprint for success. IHI/NPSF

Lucian Leape Institute (p. 31) [Report]. https://www.ihi.org/sites/default/files/Leading_a_Culture_of_Safety_Blueprint.pdf

Read the following document to see an excellent example of how employees at various levels can work together to form safety management systems focused on prevention. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (2018). The electric power industry: Lighting the way for

safety and health programs. https://www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/SHP_EEI_Case_Study.pdf

OSH 2301, Introduction to Workplace Safety 1

Course Learning Outcomes for Unit I Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:

1. Describe safety-related roles and responsibilities of employees. 1.1 Identify the ways employees can contribute to the safety of a team or program. 1.2 Identify the term that refers to the seriousness of a loss or mishap.

Required Unit Resources Chapter 1: Safety Management Unit Lesson Doctors, lawyers, teachers, carpenters, electricians—most people will be able to close their eyes and picture individuals in these professions, and when asked, they would be able to describe what each type of professional does. However, this is not usually true concerning a safety professional.

UNIT I STUDY GUIDE The Safety Professional—Roles and Responsibilities

(“Construction,” 2017)

(American Public Power Association, 2017)

(Brosy, 2018)

(Gray, 2017)

(Hunters Race, 2017)

(Nguyen, 2017)

Doctors, lawyers, teachers, carpenters, electricians—these are all common occupations that are familiar to everyone, but what does a safety professional do?

OSH 2301, Introduction to Workplace Safety 2

UNIT x STUDY GUIDE Title

What does a safety professional do? When asked, people will give responses such as keeping people safe or ensuring employees follows the safety rules. However, if you think about it logically, these should be the responsibilities of everyone in every organization, not just the safety professional! The safety professional’s role is to manage safety, just as any other element of the business is managed. Safety professionals are responsible for coordinating the resources that frontline supervisors need in order to implement a successful safety management system. They also act as advisors or consultants to mid-level and upper management, guiding them in the process of implementing a safety management system. The structure of the safety management system may vary slightly depending on the basis on which it is developed. Consensus standards or published programs such as the following can be used as a basis when developing a safety management system:

• the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) / American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) American National Standard for Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems Z10.0;

• the British Standards Institution (BSI), Occupational Health and Safety System Standard OHSAS 18001;

• the International Organization for Standardization, Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems;

• the National Safety Council’s Nine Elements of a Successful Safety and Health System; and • the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Voluntary Protection Program (VPP).

All of the above differ slightly, but they all generally require similar elements, including management commitment, employee involvement, hazard recognition and control, and training. Implementing these standards across the various levels of the organization will take some persuasion at every level, from top management down to frontline employees.

A key element of implementation is securing resources in terms of employee time as well as finances. When presenting a case to upper management for the implementation of a formal safety and health management system, it will be important to capture the direct costs of injures, such as insurance premiums; legal fees; and other medical costs such as surgery, rehabilitation, and physical therapy. It will also to address the potential indirect costs. These indirect costs include impacts to the business in reduced head count when employees are out, time spent investigating incidents, negative impact on employee morale, increased

OSH 2301, Introduction to Workplace Safety 3

UNIT x STUDY GUIDE Title

overtime, risk for equipment failure, and the social license of the organization, which is how the local community views a business. Looking at a complete picture of the possible impacts that injuries can have on an organization will enable top management to see the value of committing resources to a safety management system. Let’s look at an example: Suppose a maintenance employee tears a rotator cuff working on a piece of equipment and is required to be off work for six weeks. The direct medical costs of this are evident—a costly surgery followed by numerous physical therapy sessions. However, the indirect impacts are actually much larger. The maintenance department now has one fewer employee for six weeks, which will result in one of two scenarios: work not being completed, causing increased risk for equipment failure or downtime, or increased overtime for the remaining employees that is costly and has the potential for resulting in additional injuries or poor workmanship because of exhaustion. This can begin to wear down the remaining employees, thereby, adversely impacting morale. As we see in our example, a single injury has the potential to result in significant indirect costs to the organization. Once management is on board with the implementation of a safety management system, the next step is to work with the employees to ensure that they are involved. The employees, especially those on the front line and their supervisors, must be engaged early in the development of a safety management system. These are the employees who will be affected most by any changes brought about because of new policies, procedures, or requirements. These all reflect change, and change can be hard. Change is generally more acceptable to those who can influence that change. Getting direct feedback from the employees early in the process allows them to have a voice. This can be done in many ways; one of the most effective ways can be the formation of a health and safety committee. This committee should be cross-functional and comprised of employees from all departments and levels of the organization. These committees can be used to develop new safety-related policies and procedures and to obtain feedback from the workforce. It can also be effective to form subcommittees to focus on specific areas that need physical items produced, such as a written plan. An example of this would be the formation of a subcommittee within the health and safety committee whose focus would be the development of an emergency action plan. This group can focus its efforts on preparing the plan as well as the plan’s rollout, including training. The subcommittee can present its progress to the larger health and safety committee and gain consensus on their decisions. In doing this, the employees will own their specific component of the safety program and will work to ensure that it is a success. As the safety professional, you can support these committees by outlining the regulatory and organization requirements while letting the employees develop a program to meet those requirements. While developing a safety management system cannot be done by the safety professional alone, he or she does have a significant role in it, especially from a technical point of view. The safety professional must have the skills, abilities, and expertise to manage the program implementation. This starts with the ability to communicate diverse types of information effectively to all levels of the organization. This communication is dynamic, changing in content, scope, and format depending on the audience. Safety professionals must be able to develop and deliver clear, concise summaries intended for top-level executives while also being able to prepare detail-oriented, topic-specific training materials intended for frontline employees. They will also be required to prepare executive-level memos that provide a cursory review of safety performance while also being required to prepare detailed reports such as those required by regulatory agencies and insurance providers. Safety professionals must also be able to communicate verbally with mid-level management—most importantly frontline supervisors—when outlining their roles and responsibilities in the safety management system.

Safety professionals attend a safety training session, which requires effective verbal and written communication (Oregon Department of Transportation, 2012)

OSH 2301, Introduction to Workplace Safety 4

UNIT x STUDY GUIDE Title

To communicate effectively, safety professionals must be confident in their own skills and abilities. The necessary skills and abilities are built on a solid foundation in the behavioral, technical, legal, and regulatory requirements of health and safety. This requires knowledge from many disciplines, including psychology, anatomy, physiology, physics, biology, chemistry, and engineering. This knowledge will provide the safety professional the ability to interpret local, state, and federal regulations, including those published by OSHA and the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). These are the minimum requirements to which the organization must adhere. The safety professional must have a thorough understanding of these requirements and be able to communicate to employees in the organization how they can be integrated into their daily activities. Health and safety requirements cannot be an additional requirement for employees; they must be a normal part of their daily routine. Getting a formal education in occupational safety and health or a related field is a great start to establishing this foundation. However, a successful safety professional must be committed to lifelong learning. This can be accomplished through professional safety organizations such as the Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP), American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP), American Board of Industrial Hygiene (ABIH), and the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH). These organizations offer memberships and certifications with opportunities for continuous education. This is important because the field of health and safety is ever-evolving, a strong safety professional will need to stay current. Finally, the safety professional must be persistent, constantly pushing for continuous improvement. Working with the appropriate level of leadership, the safety professional must establish realistic and achievable, yet aggressive, goals for continuous safety improvement. The key is setting goals that will drive continuous improvement while maintaining a level of realism. While it is obvious that any organization implementing a safety management system wants zero injuries, it may not be a realistic goal when a program is in the very early stages of its development. For example, a facility that has consistently maintained a total recordable case rate of greater than five for the past 10 years, along with a days-of-restricted work activity or job transfer (DART) incident rate of more than two for that same time period, will be unlikely to reduce those values to zero in the first year of implementing a safety management system. Setting unrealistic goals can frustrate employees. For example, suppose a facility management team rolls out a safety management system initiative on January 2 with enthusiasm and employee support. However, they only provide one measurable goal: zero injuries. The employees will strive to achieve that goal, implementing the safety management system. Six months later, after a significant amount of challenging work by employees at all levels, the facility has three recordable incidents for that year. Without additional context, this can be viewed by the employees as a failure, resulting in their becoming disengaged in the initiative. This is the danger of only measuring performance on lagging indicators, which are things that have already happened. It is possible that of those three injuries, none resulted in DART that would indicate that the injuries at the facility may be less severe. Severity can be measured by injuries that result in DART. If using lagging indicators, such as injuries, targets should be set on reducing the severity and frequency of injuries, using the facility’s history as a baseline and targeting incremental improvements. However, it can be more beneficial to focus on leading indicators, or things that are yet to happen. They can be targeted for improvement. Examples of leading indicators could be safety meeting attendance, the number of safety hazards identified by employees, positive safety behavior observations, or the number of safety trainings offered. These are metrics employees at all levels can directly impact and help improve if they are committed to a successful safety management system. Whatever the goals, it will be critical for the safety professional to keep the management team, as well as the frontline employees, aware as the day-to-day operations take place so that the organization will continue to work toward them. Continuous improvement is the key to reaching advanced levels in safety management, and it can lead to a zero-injury workplace if implemented correctly.

OSH 2301, Introduction to Workplace Safety 5

UNIT x STUDY GUIDE Title

References American Public Power Association. (2017, October 30). Bryan Municipal Utilities [Photograph]. Unsplash.

https://unsplash.com/photos/fHLdXfURDhA Brosy, M. (2018, July 30). Doctor with a stethoscope [Photograph]. Unsplash.

https://unsplash.com/photos/hIgeoQjS_iE Gray, A. (2017, September 19). Man, male, saw and workshop [Photograph]. Unsplash.

https://unsplash.com/photos/WEWTGkPUVT0 Hunters Race. (2017, October 10). This is a shot of the owner of New Zealand watch company – Hunters

Race [Photograph]. Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/MYbhN8KaaEc Nguyen, T. (2017, November 25). Physics teacher [Photograph]. Unsplash.

https://unsplash.com/photos/TVSRWmnW8Us Oregon Department of Transportation. (2012, April 9). B210 safety training (7256587444) [Photograph].

Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:B210_Safety_Training_(7256587444).jpg

Suggested Unit Resources You are encouraged to read the following chapter in your textbook for insight on the role of communication in safety management. Chapter 2: Communication In order to access the following resources, click the links below. Read pp. 9–10 in the following document. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (2016). Recommended practices for safety and health

programs (OSHA Report No. 3885). https://www.osha.gov/shpguidelines/docs/OSHA_SHP_Recommended_Practices.pdf

ClickView Pty Limited (Producer). (2010). Conclusion: Why OH&S is important to everyone (Segment 6 of 7)

[Video]. In Workplace health and safety. Films on Demand. https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?auth=CAS&url=http://fod.infobase.com/PortalPla ylists.aspx?wID=273866&xtid=129322&loid=459285

For a transcript of this segment, click the Transcript tab next to the video in the Films on Demand database. The following article provides a perspective on how executive-level leadership develops safety improvement strategies. IHI/NPSF Lucian Leape Institute. (2017). Leading a Culture of Safety: a Blueprint for success. IHI/NPSF

Lucian Leape Institute (p. 31) [Report]. https://www.ihi.org/sites/default/files/Leading_a_Culture_of_Safety_Blueprint.pdf

Read the following document to see an excellent example of how employees at various levels can work together to form safety management systems focused on prevention. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (2018). The electric power industry: Lighting the way for

safety and health programs. https://www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/SHP_EEI_Case_Study.pdf