Health and Safety Policy Statement and Safety Culture
Health and Safety Policy Statements and Safety Culture
Don’t let legislation stop your organization from developing and implementing a great health and safety program. It seems that everyone genuinely wants to keep their people safe these days; where does your organization stand? What are your must-have expectations from your workers and supervisors?
Safety culture starts with what you say and its value depends on doing what you do. Consider building your program by being sincere in the words that you utilize within your safety policy.
The best way to start to improve your safety culture is to solicit and incorporate input from your workers in your policies. The best employees are people who are genuinely enthusiastic about what they’re doing.
Healthy and Safety Policy Statements: COR Compliance
The current COR audit program begins with Element 1: Health and Safety Policy. We want to answer the question, “what does a good compliant health and safety policy looks like”?
Most health and safety policies are one page in length and identify the overall objectives of the associated safety program, the main reasons for its implementation, and the requirements of the organization’s employees and contractors to comply with the stipulations. This component is supplied to answer “why” the program is necessary, “what” it is trying to achieve, and “who” it applies to.
In Ontario, the Occupational Health & Safety Act (R.S.O. 1990, CHAPTER O.1) states that employers must “prepare and review, at least annually, a written occupational health and safety policy, and develop and maintain a program to implement that policy.” Furthermore, the employer must “post at a conspicuous location in the workplace, a copy of the occupational health and safety policy.”
The current COR audit tool checks to confirm that an organization undergoing audit meets these legislative requirements. Additionally, seasoned COR auditors look for the following key elements to evaluate policy relevance and probability of effectiveness:
Is the policy statement signed by the President or CEO of the organization, or the senior-most management representative of the local operation?
Does the policy statement include senior management's commitment to provide a safe work environment, and one that truly promotes occupational health and safety?
Does the policy recognize designated worker’s rights and responsibilities for all work groups?
Has the policy been reviewed, dated, and signed, within the last twelve months?
Does the health and safety policy express a commitment to work in a spirit of consultation and co-operation with workers?
Is the policy understood by all the personnel to whom it applies?
Any organization that can provide positive responses to the above is in a good place, and likely on its way to building a positive workplace safety culture, where accident prevention is a core value.
Presented by Roger Belair and Jason Colucci - Approved COR Associate Auditors.
