Every department within an organization has unique safety strengths and weaknesses. If a group recognizes these on its own, it is more likely to commit to improving than if an outsider points them out. This paper describes a proven process, facilitated by the safety professional, that allows work groups to assess themselves and develop customized plans for safety success.
Policies, procedures, work practices, and workplace cultures can vary considerably among the various departments, locations, and business units of an organization. Each work group has its own unique set of safety strengths and weaknesses. These differences can have significant impacts on the effectiveness of the larger organization's safety and health efforts.
Quite simply, what works in one group may not work in another. This is particularly true in large organizations that are geographically dispersed or comprising disparate or acquired operating units. Even large office departments sharing the same floor can differ in safety effectiveness.
Some work groups that attempt to develop safety management plans can become frustrated by the lack of adequate structure to indicate if they are focusing on the right things and not overlooking important aspects of an effective safety and health program.
Each and every department needs to find a way to manage its own safety effectively. In order to do this, each department must first know the state of its safety management infrastructure and how well it is currently managing safety.
The classical way of assessing the state of safety in an organization is to take a global look at the entire organization. However, it is often more beneficial to assess the way each unit (department, location, etc.) supports and implements the overall safety and health program. In this sense, each unit has its own set of safety management systems or, at the very least, its own way of using them.
Assessments conducted by consultants or safety staff may produce fairly accurate findings, but can suffer from a lack of commitment and buy-in from people within the assessed organization. This can affect the success of actions taken to improve. A cry often heard is that these actions are "one size fits all."
Work groups take much more ownership of the findings of an assessment and are more committed to making improvements if their own employees and managers conduct the evaluations themselves. What they lack in professional safety knowledge is offset by intimate familiarity with what really goes on inside their group. Safety staff can provide the professional safety guidance.
Northeast Utilities (NU) developed the Safety and Health "Self-Assessment and Plan Development (SAPD)" process in 2000 for just this reason. It has proven valuable for insightfully identifying department and business unit strengths and weaknesses and developing effective improvement plans. Many managers have referred to the process as an "eye-opener." As one regional vice president has said, "[SAPD] has been a real gem for us. The fact that people are involved in working on safety helped our awareness. It has been an extremely successful program."
