Safety Management
Introduction
Safety management is understood as an approach that is used to apply ideologies, structures, procedures, and methods to prevent and reduce accidents, damages, and other hostile outcomes in an organization. It provides an organized way to constantly recognize and monitor hazards and regulate risks while maintaining affirmation that the risk controls are efficient. The safety management system is composed of safety rules and goals, safety risk control, safety guarantee, and safety promotion. Safety management is the process of managing business activities and applying policies and measures to minimize risk.
According to Ahmad (2018), safety management or performance is the quality of safety-related work, and its enhancement in the organization to increase its resistance and lower the risks of accidents. Great safety performance and high productivity work well together. The practice of safety management is a significant aspect used to improve the effective management of safety in the organization. The management system is supported by practices that are made up of committed management, safety education, the participation of workers, safety verbal engagements and response, safety guidelines, safety promotion, and strategies. The commitment of management is important in an organization because it reduces the number of accidents in the place of work. It emulates the importance of management of safety associated issues which are shown in the care and support given to develop a safety-related program.
Safety training is important especially in educating employees on safety practice and acting following the guidelines. Involving employees in the process is a behavior founded methodology which consists of persons or groups escalating the flow of engagements and decision-making developments in the company. Employees should be involved in the process for them to give their suggestions, comments, and insights concerning safety. This involvement empowers the employees psychologically through their participation in making safety decisions. Safety communication and feedback are important in safety management to report on any problem, the cause, accident, and non-compliance (Ahmad 2018). Therefore communication between the employees and the management is important in terms of feedback and comments on any safety-related improvements. Safety rules and procedures are crucial in safety management because they set the mission, vision, roles, set up the standards for employee behavior, and provide a safety system that will correct the safety behavior of the employees. Safety promotion and policies are important to the organization for them to be able to sustain and promote the safety policies implemented by the organization.
Research shows that the main cause of death resulting from an occupational injury is associated with protective features such as safety and health information and management factors and not to risk features such as risky working surroundings. Safety and health training is an effective and important strategy to improve safety behaviors and prevent injuries in the workplace. Safety and health managers hold the roles of delivering efficient safety and health education in the workplace (Park 2018). Diverse safety and health policies and programs are developed in support of small businesses. In the models suggested to prevent occupational injuries, among the situational factors included are human resource and organizational systems for the workplace safety and health are related to increased employee safety knowledge and motivation, more employee engagement in safety behaviors, and a reduction of accidents in the workplace. Safety and health human resources can strengthen workplace education and communications, hence improving employee safety awareness, information, skills, inspiration, and goals.
The reason organizations adopt a safety management system or an approach based on behavior is to manage their safety roles in an effort to perform well. Most companies prefer to adopt one structure due to practical and logical motives. Earlier behavioral systems take on observational techniques whereby employees distinct critical behaviors, observe employees for these actions, and offer their responses. Progressive behavior-based systems expose and correct organizational obstacles that hinder safe acts (Wachter& Yorio 2014). Features of these systems are required to efficiently manage safety performance in an organization. Both aspects are included in the human performance methodology which tries to recognize and eradicate the causes of mistakes made by individuals in the workplace.
In human performance theory, objectives, missions, guidelines, and programs have concealed organizational weaknesses that could result in inconsistent fortifications and error precursors in organizations. The error signs are not favorable conditions because they intensify the possibility of human mistakes while executing particular activities (Wachter& Yorio 2014). The most common mistake traps consist of time and mental burden, exhaustion, interruptions, self-confidence, and engaging in new tasks. In human performance, human mistakes are a huge problem in the system. It is unavoidable for organizational flaws to rise in a safety system and management practices. This is because safety systems cannot plan for regulation and prevention contrary to all possible error-prone conditions because in so doing, work should be arranged and controlled to be difficult hence using a lot of time, is not workable and is not reasonable. Safety management systems are normally established through rules, procedures, and strategies making them hard to be adjustable to the natural and unavoidable disparities arising in the work performance and the dangers being stumbled upon.
From a behavioral viewpoint, employees come along with their opinions, principles, and visions to the development and execution of safety management systems and in the ultimate work performance. The employee links with the safety management system by taking part in the structure. The drive to take part can be impacted by employees, opinions, and principles which can influence the employee’s value and regularity of involvement. In case of an accident, the worker's behaviors of the ones that interface with the dangers, are thoroughly examined during accident inquiries. To improve human performance, there are tools that can be used to lessen the chances of human mistakes (Wachter& Yorio 2014). The tools can be perceived as drivers for providing psychological and social abilities that compliment an employee’s practical abilities to encourage safe and effective duty performance. The commonly used tools for improving safety include leading pre and post-task sessions, peer-checking performance, and the use of self-checking methodologies for the employees who hardly believe that they have the required knowledge to make decisions. These tools engage employees to have more awareness in situations that concern their safety, mistake setups, responsibilities to be executed, and the environs. Engaging employees in safety helps to lessen the likelihood of individual mistakes from happening by involving them and making them conscious of the responsibilities, environment, and the related risks and the mistake traps that could be in existence. This means that increasing the level of engaging the employee in safety activities could be associated with improved safety performance.
The “Occupational Safety and Health Act” was passed to make sure that every working person has a safe and healthy work environment and also to preserve our human resources. This act developed the “Occupational Safety and Health Administration” which is used to govern the actions and enforce the safety and health principles that concern employees in the U.S. Both the managers and the workers have duties and privileges under the act. The employer’s responsibilities are to ensure that they present a working environment that is free from familiar risks, having familiarity with the required OSHA values, and scrutinizing the situations in the workplace to make certain that they fit into the OSHA values (Dessler 2017). The employee’s responsibilities are conforming to all appropriate OSHA values, they should follow all the safety and health regulations made by their employer and should report hazardous conditions to the superior. In the act, workers are given the right to claim for safety and health in their work and not fearing that they will be punished.
According to Kaplan & Mikes (2012), making rules and ensuring that employees follow them is sensible and reduces most of the hazards that could cause destruction in an organization. However, the use of rules in risk management will not reduce the probability or the effect of a tragedy. This paves the way for a new classification of risk that permits managers to know the risks that can be accomplished by using the rule-based methodology and which ones require other methodologies. The first step in developing a well-organized risk management system is comprehending the dissimilarities among the kinds of hazards that are faced by companies. Categorization of risks includes “preventable risks” which are inner risks that come from the organizations that are manageable and are supposed to be avoided. Companies need to tolerate mistakes that would cause little damage to the initiative and for which acquiring thorough evasion would be expensive. However, in general, organizations should strive to eradicate these risks because they are not beneficial and in the long run can diminish the worth of the company. This risk category can be achieved through prevention by observing operational procedures and guiding people’s conduct and decisions to follow the appropriate norms.
“Strategy risks” is another type of risk which are willingly recognized by an organization to make greater earnings. A strategy with great expectation of earnings calls for the organization to take on noteworthy risks and handling these risks is key to taking potential advances. These kinds of risks cannot be accomplished through the rule approach, but through a risk management system that is developed to decrease the possibility that the expected risks increase the capability for the organization to manage the risk events when they occur (Kaplan & Mikes 2012). A system like this does not stop organizations from taking on risky ventures but enables companies to take on higher risks hence great returns. The third category is the “external risks” which are risks that come from actions outside of the company and beyond its control. These are risks that could be a result of natural or political disasters and key macroeconomic shifts. It is hard for companies to prevent themselves from such events and so the management has to concentrate on recognizing and justifying their effect. Companies ought to modify their risk-management processes to fit the different categories.
Accidents could be prevented by reducing unsafe conditions and according to OSHA, employers are supposed to introduce all possible engineering and work practice controls to eradicate and reduce hazards (Dessler 2017). Employers need to develop safe environments for vulnerable employees such as young, old, female, and immigrant workers to ensure that their safe and healthy. Accidents could also be prevented by reducing unsafe acts through screening, training, and posters, motivation, and positive support. The unsafe acts could also be reduced by promoting a culture of safety, developing a helpful environment, creating a safety procedure, and placing precise loss control objectives. Safety based on behavior and safety awareness programs and employee involvement could also be used to reduce unsafe acts.
Conclusion
Safety management provides an organized way to continually recognize and monitor risks while upholding the assertion that the risk controls are efficient. The practice of safety management is a significant factor that is used to improve effective management of safety in the organization hence increasing production. Safety and health training is an important strategy to improve safety behaviors and prevent injuries in the workplace. Safety rules and procedures help to set the mission, roles, and vision for employee behavior while health promotion policies are important to sustain and promote the safety policies in the organization. To ensure safety and health for employees and their employers, the occupational health and safety act was developed which helps to state their responsibilities and rights in the workplace. Workplace hazards are different and each should be managed according to its category. Reducing unsafe conditions and unsafe acts could prevent and reduce accidents in the workplace.
References
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Park K. O. (2018). Human resource factors associated with workplace safety and health
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