Safe business operations require a systematic, ongoing effort to identify and eliminate workplace hazards before workers are hurt. Safety and Health Management System is what it’s called. A SHMS requires leadership support and participation of workers (including unions that are present in your organization), hazard assessment, prevention and control, opportunities for education and an ongoing training program, as well as regular evaluation of the program.
Traditional approaches blame accidents on workers. Herbert W. Heinrich’s 1930s theory that 85 to 95% of accidents result from unsafe actions of individuals led to many different behavior-based safety (BBS) approaches. Recently the advocates of quality approach to safety recognize that accidents result from systems and processes, and use quality tools to minimize the probability of them occurring.
Managers need to be taught the message that being a safe business is a key part of their job. This can be accomplished through direct remarks on performance reviews, as well as bonuses. LyondellBasell for example makes it clear to its employees that regardless of how low their OSHA recordable injury rates are, if there is an incident that is catastrophic on the job the manager will not receive an incentive.
SAFe can be configured and scalable. This allows each company to adapt the Framework for their own development environment. SAFe has a spanning panels that contains additional roles and artifacts that aren’t found in Essential SAFe. Click each icon in the spanning palette for more about how it can be used to your particular situation.
