Failure to identify the hazards, analyze and evaluate the risk, and set up control measures, triggers off a chain of events that lead to accidental loss.
Control
Failure to identify the risks brought about by the business leaves the elements and items that need to be controlled unidentified.
As a result of poor controls, personal and job factors arise which lead to the creation of unsafe work conditions, and the unsafe acts of people. These eventually lead to the contact, the property damage and/or the injury. This culminates in the last domino in the Cause, Effect and Control of Accidental Loss. (CECAL) sequence, which are financial losses.
"Effecive health and safety management is not 'common sense' but is based on a common understanding of risks and how to control them brought about through good management" (Health and Safety Executive, Great Britain, 1991). Dan Petersen (1998), states that: "If a firm can dictate, in advance, what actions it should take to prevent accidents, then it can measure how well these predetermined actions are executed" (p.37). Risk assessment is a method, which is predictive and can indicate potential for loss. An organization is then able to set up the necessary management controls to prevent the risk resulting in losses such as injuries, property damage, business interruptions and environmental pollution. Many safety programs focus on the consequence of loss and not the control. Effective risk assessment is proactive, predictive safety in the finest form. In risk assessment the keywords are "it's not what happened, but what could have happened…
If the risks arising out of the business have not been identified and assessed, they therefore cannot be managed or controlled. This creates lack of, or poor, management control, which is depicted by the second domino in the chain of events leading to undesired events.
"…there is a great tendency - human tendency - for management to rationalize after experiencing a human tragedy. It is always so much easier to find the careless acts. on the part of an injured employee which precipitated the accident but, an enlightened management will not hesitate to look beyond the 'unsafe act' on the part of an employee and to consider it as a symptom of lack of management control" (Lester A Hudson, 1993)(p.2).
Direction
It has often been said that if you don't know where you are going, any road will lead you there. Safety management is the same. Unless direction is set and actions are based on a thorough understanding of risks, all efforts to reduce accidents may be misdirected.
