How to Write Safety Programs: Best Practices from Safety Experts #59

Jen from Allen Safety dives into the critical aspects of safety programs that every company should consider.  From writing new safety programs, reviewing existing safety programs, or performing updates, the Allen Safety team has years of experience in safety management across manufacturing and industry to help your team avoid common problems, create a cohesive program, and shines a light on best safety practices into your safety programs.

Key Points Covered:

Identifying Gaps in Safety Programs

Jen emphasizes the importance of assessing safety programs regularly to identify gaps that may compromise safety culture.
Companies often struggle with chaotic, inconsistent safety programs that lack cohesion and clarity.
Customization vs. Standardization

While standardization across company policies is essential for risk reduction, Jen stresses the need for customization based on location-specific needs.
Using examples like respiratory programs in different feed mills, she highlights the importance of tailoring programs to local conditions and requirements.
Qualifications for Training Providers

Clear and defined qualifications are crucial for individuals conducting safety training.
Different levels of training (e.g., authorized vs. awareness level lockout tagout) require specific expertise, which should be clearly outlined to maintain compliance and effectiveness.
Avoiding Generic Programs

Boilerplate safety programs copied from other companies or industries often fail to address specific site needs.
Jen advises against simply filling gaps in generic programs without making them industry-specific or location-specific.
Management and Employee Engagement

Ensuring that safety programs are accessible and understood by all levels of the organization is key.
Managers and supervisors play a crucial role in enforcing safety protocols and should be educated on their importance to foster a safety-conscious culture.
Enforcement and Accountability

Merely having comprehensive safety programs isn’t enough; enforcement and accountability are equally vital.
Jen suggests educating management teams on the federal requirements and engaging them in discussions to bridge any compliance gaps effectively.
Conclusion
Jen wraps up by stressing the importance of clarity, customization, and continuous improvement in safety programs. Whether through on-site program creation or coaching resources available at Allen Safety Coaching, she offers practical solutions tailored to each company's unique needs.

SEO Keywords:
Safety programs, safety culture, OSHA compliance, customized safety training, safety management systems, site-specific safety, safety program assessment, safety program implementation, safety program gaps, safety training qualifications, safety program customization, management engagement in safety, enforcing safety protocols, accountability in safety.

Outro
For more insights and support in enhancing your company’s safety programs, visit Allen Safety Coaching at allensafetycoaching.com or contact Jen and her team directly. Ensure your workplace remains safe and compliant with expert guidance from Allen Safety. Don’t hesitate to reach out for personalized assistance tailored to your company’s needs.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

How's it going, everybody? So today we are talking safety programs. It is one of those things we've got to do every year, and so, before you really dive into reviewing, revamping and changing all your safety programs, just wanted to hop on here and do a quick podcast about things that you should kind of watch for. What are the big ticket items that we see as gaps when we go in and evaluate programs and systems? And so here we go. All right, guys. So safety programs this week.

Speaker 1: 0:37

So just to give a quick background, my name is Jen, I'm one of the owners of Allen Safety and we were formerly all safety managers some of the largest companies in the world. Currently, we provide services of creation all the way through implementation, which includes rollout and training for safety programs for companies of all types, sizes, styles and all that good stuff. So, in addition to just the hazmat and confined space training, incident command, refrigeration stuff we are full on safety people. That was actually what we started as, and we still continue to do that stuff. So safety programs come up all the time. We're constantly writing and reviewing safety programs, so we thought it would be a good one to talk about today. So here we go. So one of the things that we hear a lot when we go and evaluate a location they brought us in, because they say things like you know, our safety is just not where we want it to be. We feel like we should be farther along. Can you come and take a look and tell us where our gaps are and what we can improve on? And so we'll go out there. Or you know, we hear we've got a safety culture issue and we need some help. Can you help us? And we're like absolutely Because we love safety. So here we are, we're going to help you. So one of the things we do is we go out to the floor and we get a baseline or production areas, whatever that looks like, and we just say what's going on All shifts, get a really good feel for the business, all the ins and outs. What does that look like? On all shifts, that everybody's working. We'll look at programs, we'll look at permits, we'll look at training, and the first thing we see is it's all over the map and so leads to maybe not a really strong safety culture. Is what I would recommend. Now, again, this is just my concepts and ideas and don't come for me, but this is just my view is when you have chaos in your programs you're going to have chaos out in the floors.

Speaker 1: 2:26

So first the programs are copy and pasted. They're either all OSHA code or they're bits and pieces of your company's program and OSHA code and some other company's program that we had somebody come from and they like how their program is. So they copy and pasted it in there and we're just not really sure what we do or why we do it or any of that we want to remember. When we're creating a program. It should be our playbook. As a new manager I should be able to come in, read that program and to know exactly how we're complying to that subject at this location. We really want to make sure it's custom. So if I'm writing a lockout program, for instance, I'm going to make sure that that lockout program says here's what out-of-service locks look like. Here's what they don't. Here's the color they are. Here's what they're not. Here's a lockout lock. Here's my lockout lock for maintenance. Here's my lockout lock. Color for sanitation Production's green, maintenance is red, maybe sanitation's purple, whatever that looks like. I'm going to have those specifics in there. I'm going to have specifics on how we're complying during transitional periods, changeover periods from production and sanitation or when maintenance takes over, whatever that looks like.

Speaker 1: 3:34

The next one is we don't clearly define our expectations around training. What we want to see is very clear, defined. Here's what needs to be covered and here's how we want it covered, and here's who's qualified to provide that training or expectations around who can provide that training, so it can't just be anybody that is free that day provides that training. They've got to have very clear and specific qualifications and criteria to be able to, in this circumstance, teach authorized lockout tagout. That's going to be completely different than my expectations regarding who can train awareness level lockout tagout. Those are going to be different qualifications and we want to make sure that we're spelling details like that out.

Speaker 1: 4:20

In regards to how often is the training, what should it include for each person, based on their role, and who's qualified to do it? What are those qualifications and how do we want competency verified? Are we accepting a test or does it have to be hands-on demonstration? What does that look like? Is it a hands-on demonstration for everybody? One person? You were just there to witness that. What does that look like? We want to be very specific about those things. Three, it's not customized. It's just not a customized program. So we can have a standardized program for a company, and I agree in the concept of standardization across the company because in my world, my opinion is that this helps reduce risk.

Speaker 1: 5:00

However, there are still going to be certain areas within each program that are going to have to be location specific, and I'll give you an example. So if I'm doing a respiratory program and I have 10 feed meals, the respiratory requirements and when those are required and when they're not, or if they're even required at all, could be dependent on the type of feed I'm running and the ingredients in them. It may be the same, it may be different, and so that's going to be something that is going to be dictated based on industrial hygiene surveys done at those individual facilities. That would be something that I would want a location to specify the person who wrote it or is writing your procedures. They're not there. They're not there, or those procedures and programs haven't been reviewed in a really long time, or you had someone write them. Maybe it was internal, maybe it was external. They don't know your location, they don't know the industry and it's very boilerplate and generic.

Speaker 1: 5:58

So we want to make sure that we're very intentional about who is writing these programs, what their qualifications should be, what experience they should have, what their qualifications should be, what experience they should have. And if we're not sure we have somebody who is able to do that and we do reach out and have a third party do it, we want to make sure that whoever we select is that third party, that they know what's going on in our business. I can go and write a lockout tagout program for a lot of different facilities because I'm a safety person. There are lots of companies, is the point that provide different services and they'll give you different prices, but what you want to make sure is they're an expert in that industry, they're an expert in that field, they're an expert in that subject matter and they are able to be an expert at your location. So this is one of those items that you don't necessarily want to take at your location. So this is one of those items that you don't necessarily want to take the cheapest option available in regards to a vendor coming on site and writing it. And I would also highly encourage you to avoid a boilerplate program and just fill in the gaps if it's not been made industry specific by your corporation or by your specific location, specific by your corporation or by your specific location.

Speaker 1: 7:12

The next one we're the only ones as safety people or the safety department that knows the program or knows where it is, knows what's in it or knows where to find the procedures. These should be living, breathing documents that we're very comfortable and our management team is very comfortable with what the expectations are, what is in them, and that we can quickly reference what is where, that we're that familiar with these programs and we want everybody to know. If I go out and ask an employee on the floor, where can I find the lockout, tagout procedures for this specific piece of equipment? I want them to know. And so if they aren't sure, and they don't know that we have them, or they've never heard of such a thing, they've never seen it, they don't know. That's a concern that we would want to make sure that we address on the training side.

Speaker 1: 7:55

The last thing would be what's written in the program is just not what we do at all. It's just flat out not what we do. So a big one we'll see is we've got a new safety manager and they love their program and they're a very strong safety manager where they came from and they take that program. They're like you know what? We don't have one at my new place or the one we have. I don't like it, it's not mine and I don't think it's very good. I'm going to take mine and I'm going to just put a different logo on it. And they do this without doing a baseline, and they do this without maybe totally understanding everything that's happening. And this is more the case if you've got a safety manager that came from a different industry, and so instead, what I'd really want to encourage you to do is, before you change a program, before you write a program, get a baseline on all shifts and really become comfortable inside and out of what is happening regarding that subject at that specific location, and then go back and either update an existing program to make it site-specific, location-specific, industry-specific, or just write a whole new one, whatever that looks like.

Speaker 1: 8:53

But we want to make sure that we're getting a really good baseline first and then a bonus one. We want to make sure that we let people know what the expectations are in regards to. We want to make sure that we let people know what's in the training. We let them know what the expectations are. We train them according to what is in the program and what those expectations are. We explain very clearly why it's important, why it matters to them. Here's why you should care, because folks want to know that important, why it matters to them. Here's why you should care, because folks want to know that. But I will also tell you we've got to make sure we hold them accountable too.

Speaker 1: 9:31

So it doesn't matter how good our safety programs are, if no one knows where it is, no one believes in it, which is a training gap, in my opinion and no one enforces it. And if you find that that's the case, if you've got management teams or supervisors whoever that are not enforcing your programs, I think what we could also do in that circumstance is just do a little bit of management education on why this matters, why it's important. And if you've got pushback, we can't do this. That doesn't make sense. We can never make this happen. I think part of it is it's just a joint effort and going back to number five, back to the baseline, and being like, well, what can we do? Because this is the intent that we have to meet. So how can we meet that? And maybe a little bit of tough love reminder of this is a federal requirement. This is not whoever's opinion. How are we going to meet that requirement together and make sure that we're meeting the intent the employees are safe, but we can also do whatever job it is that you need done and just have that conversation.

Speaker 1: 10:21

So that's going to be it for me today. I hope that's helpful. If you have questions, you need support on your programs. Again, we go on site and write programs. We've also got in the coaching site lots of good tips and tricks on every subject that you can imagine from the safety side, on what should be in your program, how to lay it out, what to avoid, what to make sure you include, and so allensafetycoachingcom is a great resource if you're looking for an economical way to do that. Otherwise, like I say, if you want it off your plate, call me and I'm happy to help you and send some of my team out to get you where you need to be and then help you through that rollout phase of implementation as well.

Speaker 1: 10:55

So that's going to be it. Take care and we'll see you next time. Thanks everybody, you next time. Thanks everybody. Thank you for listening to Safe, efficient, profitable a worker safety podcast. If you're looking for more in-depth discussions or step-by-step solutions on all of the different safety and regulatory topics, please visit us at wwwallensafetycoachingcom for web-based virtual coaching and training, or at wwwallen-safetycom to book our team for onsite services, training sessions, to order merchandise, to learn more about our team and what services we provide in the field, or just simply to request a topic for us to cover on our next podcast. If you found today's podcast helpful and would like to support our podcast further, please help us by subscribing, liking and sharing this podcast with anyone that could benefit from the information we cover here, as that helps us to continue to put out this free content. Thank you.