Safety Management System Success: Part 2, Questions to Improve An Existing System

From my perspective, a safety management system is only valuable when people use it to protect people, the environment, the company, and other stakeholders. If it sits unused on the shelf (or on an internal drive), it is a waste of paper (and space). However, when we get insight into how the management system was designed (and why), it helps us clarify functionality and possible next steps. The following questions can help us ensure existing safety system success:

1.       Who was the safety management system designed for?

2.       Is the safety management system functioning as designed?

3.       Are you going for a world-class safety management system?

I will expand on the three questions listed above with some discussion to help one look at their safety management system from a different perspective and gather valuable knowledge to improve all four phases of the management system (plan, do, check, and act).

1. Who was the Safety Management System Designed for?

To answer this question, we must talk to other personnel who know the history behind the system. Was it developed because the company wanted to protect workers by mitigating and managing operational risk? Or was it developed to satisfy an external requirement, whether regulatory, client, or another stakeholder? If created for external reasons, it won't have the buy-in to take it to the next level. This topic is covered in my last blog: Safety Management System Success: Part 1, Questions for New Systems. Check it out by clicking on this link.

If the system was developed for internal reasons, was it built to protect front-line workers or senior management? Historically, most systems are built because of senior management.  They are ultimately responsible for HSE buy-in and performance and can be held legally accountable if they do not provide the necessary support and resources to ensure safe and environmentally responsible operations across the company.

While a successful safety management system must be developed in collaboration between the HSE and operational departments, senior management must maintain safety management system accountability to ensure successful department collaboration and management system functionality.

Once this is complete, select champions from each group. For operations to buy in, they need to be part of the system development and implementation. When people help design something, they are more likely to support it once the rubber hits the road. And this is where most companies fail. There is talk but little follow-through, and this ultimately falls on the executives' shoulders. It takes a lot of discipline to see collaborative system development through to collaborative system implementation and beyond.

2. Is the Safety Management System Functioning as Designed?

If it is, then you have achieved safety management system success. If not, consider the following. The safety management system should be designed to be used daily (I will settle for regularly) by all company personnel to eliminate unacceptable risk and to mitigate and manage acceptable risk. Ultimately, your HSE management system should be changing how personnel view and understand risk as well as influence the company culture. If you agree, then you can examine your company's adherence to these ideals.

You can also use the data from traditional programs within your management system, i.e., incident data, audit findings, completion percentage of goals, targets, objectives, etc. Now be honest with yourself. Is the system doing what it should? At some companies, data is dissected to serve personal agendas and cover up one's mistakes. The real question is: Are people working safer today than they were yesterday?

To find this out, you need to have a relationship based on trust and honesty with the front line and not just from a "how does this help me perspective?". It must be two ways where both HSE and operations are working together to help each other. Too many times, egos and personalities get in the way of this from really happening. Most field staff can see right through people who are not genuine and are only out for their interests. They can also tell when people are genuine and want to help make their lives easier or safer. If you take the seagull approach to management or HSE, where you dive in, dump on everyone, and then fly off, you will not have the respect of the people you have been hired to help.

3. Do you Want a World-class Safety Management System?

A world-class system may not be appropriate for every organization. To go world-class requires a commitment of dedicated and consistent resources (regardless of an economic slowdown) to make this happen, so either the company has many workers or is highly profitable (likely both boxes need to be ticked). At the end of the day, a world-class HSE management system is nothing more than a moving target as stakeholder and regulatory requirements, as well as industry and technology capabilities, are constantly changing.

Maybe a more appropriate goal is to build a world-class HSE management system according to your company's available resources (i.e., do the best with what you have). Not every company needs an army of safety professionals, unlimited safety swag, and fancy training technology. Does your system (despite whatever risk your operations pose) enable and empower people to work in a safe and healthy manner while protecting the environment? Period. Think about what is a more realistic picture of what existing safety system success looks like for your company. I have seen many companies succeed with less because they understood what was important, had the right priorities, and groups worked collaboratively to meet the organization's goals.

If you are going for world-class, know that this is a never-ending goal, and the goalposts keep moving (as mentioned above). But it is a worthy goal. The energy and resources are worthwhile, especially when we are talking about sending people home safely to their families each night and protecting the environment for future generations to live in and enjoy.

Risk Defense can help you in this worthy pursuit. Click here for more information.

Every company needs a safety management system to keep people safe and help manage company HSE risk. By understanding who the safety management system was built for, if the system is working as intended, and how one can do more with less, we can better understand how well the system is performing and where we should focus our continual improvement efforts. 

There is power in questions, so this blog intended to get you to think about your safety management system differently so that the new perspective will allow fresh insights and perspectives to come forth. These (and the questions from the previous blog) are only some examples of questions to get one to think about where they are or the next steps. I suggest you develop your own questions or brainstorm some with your team so you can dig deeper into your system and the possibilities for its evolution. I trust you have found this blog useful for improving existing safety management system success.

For more information on how to look differently at and improve your company's safety management system and how this can benefit your company (or to discuss other ideas on how to take HSE at your company to the next level), please contact Risk Defense Inc. by filling out the contact form below.