The ultimate goal of any business is to maximize resources, enhance profits, and continue operations in a safe and efficient manner. The important elements of this objective should include protecting people, property and the environment, and the EHS (Environmental, Health and Safety) professional must be a leader in this critical aspect of the business. To be acknowledged as that leader, the safety professional needs to be able to assess hazards in relation to the business. A tool for this action is the Operational Risk Management process. In this article, you will learn the six-step ORM process used by decision makers and how it can be used to integrate safety and health into the business goals of any organization.
The US Air Force has adopted this approach to risk management as discussed in Pamphlet 90–902, Operational Risk Management (ORM) Guidelines and Tools. This article will attempt to apply some of the concepts and steps in the process to a business model.
Historically many businesses have functioned as so called top-down organizations. Top management makes the decision and the various levels of management and supervision essentially follow the decision makers lead. For a business to be successful in these decisions, management should consider or require that these decisions include both risk assessment and risk management. Each level of the organization should be responsible for identifying both actual and potential risks and for identifying appropriate corrective actions to minimize risk to an acceptable level. Applying the actions to minimize risk should take place both on and off the job.
Risk management should be an essential element of any business. Risk can be defined in a variety of ways. For the purposes of this article risk is defined as the probability and severity of failures or loss from exposure to various hazards. Identifying the hazard, analyzing the hazard and controlling the hazard to an acceptable risk are critical for success in any operation.
Risk management is defined as the process of identifying hazards and controlling the risks associated with them.
Risk management is not a new business process. It must be a key element that is fully integrated into the all aspects of any business. If done effectively risk management will have a direct impact on the bottom line and the culture of the organization. (1)
If the above concepts are successful, needed changes in the organizational culture may take place. In his book titled "Organizational Culture and Leadership", Edgar H. Schein defines culture as "a pattern of basic assumptions-invented, discovered, or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration- that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems". (2). The safety professional must become a team player in this culture development as it relates to the management of risk.
