How to Write Safety Programs: Best Practices from Safety Experts #59

Jen from Allen Safety dives into the critical aspects of safety programs that every company should consider.  From writing new safety programs, reviewing existing safety programs, or performing updates, the Allen Safety team has years of experience in safety management across manufacturing and industry to help your team avoid common problems, create a cohesive program, and shines a light on best safety practices into your safety programs.

Key Points Covered:

Identifying Gaps in Safety Programs

Jen emphasizes the importance of assessing safety programs regularly to identify gaps that may compromise safety culture.
Companies often struggle with chaotic, inconsistent safety programs that lack cohesion and clarity.
Customization vs. Standardization

While standardization across company policies is essential for risk reduction, Jen stresses the need for customization based on location-specific needs.
Using examples like respiratory programs in different feed mills, she highlights the importance of tailoring programs to local conditions and requirements.
Qualifications for Training Providers

Clear and defined qualifications are crucial for individuals conducting safety training.
Different levels of training (e.g., authorized vs. awareness level lockout tagout) require specific expertise, which should be clearly outlined to maintain compliance and effectiveness.
Avoiding Generic Programs

Boilerplate safety programs copied from other companies or industries often fail to address specific site needs.
Jen advises against simply filling gaps in generic programs without making them industry-specific or location-specific.
Management and Employee Engagement

Ensuring that safety programs are accessible and understood by all levels of the organization is key.
Managers and supervisors play a crucial role in enforcing safety protocols and should be educated on their importance to foster a safety-conscious culture.
Enforcement and Accountability

Merely having comprehensive safety programs isn’t enough; enforcement and accountability are equally vital.
Jen suggests educating management teams on the federal requirements and engaging them in discussions to bridge any compliance gaps effectively.
Conclusion
Jen wraps up by stressing the importance of clarity, customization, and continuous improvement in safety programs. Whether through on-site program creation or coaching resources available at Allen Safety Coaching, she offers practical solutions tailored to each company's unique needs.

SEO Keywords:
Safety programs, safety culture, OSHA compliance, customized safety training, safety management systems, site-specific safety, safety program assessment, safety program implementation, safety program gaps, safety training qualifications, safety program customization, management engagement in safety, enforcing safety protocols, accountability in safety.

Outro
For more insights and support in enhancing your company’s safety programs, visit Allen Safety Coaching at allensafetycoaching.com or contact Jen and her team directly. Ensure your workplace remains safe and compliant with expert guidance from Allen Safety. Don’t hesitate to reach out for personalized assistance tailored to your company’s needs.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
How's it going, everybody?

(00:00):
So today we are talking safetyprograms.
It is one of those things we'vegot to do every year, and so,
before you really dive intoreviewing, revamping and
changing all your safetyprograms, just wanted to hop on
here and do a quick podcastabout things that you should
kind of watch for.

(00:21):
What are the big ticket itemsthat we see as gaps when we go
in and evaluate programs andsystems?
And so here we go.
All right, guys.
So safety programs this week.
So just to give a quickbackground, my name is Jen, I'm
one of the owners of AllenSafety and we were formerly all

(00:42):
safety managers some of thelargest companies in the world.
Currently, we provide servicesof creation all the way through
implementation, which includesrollout and training for safety
programs for companies of alltypes, sizes, styles and all
that good stuff.
So, in addition to just thehazmat and confined space
training, incident command,refrigeration stuff we are full

(01:03):
on safety people.
That was actually what westarted as, and we still
continue to do that stuff.
So safety programs come up allthe time.
We're constantly writing andreviewing safety programs, so we
thought it would be a good oneto talk about today.
So here we go.
So one of the things that wehear a lot when we go and
evaluate a location they broughtus in, because they say things
like you know, our safety isjust not where we want it to be.

(01:25):
We feel like we should befarther along.
Can you come and take a lookand tell us where our gaps are
and what we can improve on?
And so we'll go out there.
Or you know, we hear we've gota safety culture issue and we
need some help.
Can you help us?
And we're like absolutelyBecause we love safety.
So here we are, we're going tohelp you.

(01:45):
So one of the things we do iswe go out to the floor and we
get a baseline or productionareas, whatever that looks like,
and we just say what's going onAll shifts, get a really good
feel for the business, all theins and outs.
What does that look like?
On all shifts, that everybody'sworking.
We'll look at programs, we'lllook at permits, we'll look at
training, and the first thing wesee is it's all over the map

(02:07):
and so leads to maybe not areally strong safety culture.
Is what I would recommend.
Now, again, this is just myconcepts and ideas and don't
come for me, but this is just myview is when you have chaos in
your programs you're going tohave chaos out in the floors.
So first the programs are copyand pasted.

(02:29):
They're either all OSHA code orthey're bits and pieces of your
company's program and OSHA codeand some other company's
program that we had somebodycome from and they like how
their program is.
So they copy and pasted it inthere and we're just not really
sure what we do or why we do itor any of that we want to

(02:50):
remember.
When we're creating a program.
It should be our playbook.
As a new manager I should beable to come in, read that
program and to know exactly howwe're complying to that subject
at this location.
We really want to make sureit's custom.
So if I'm writing a lockoutprogram, for instance, I'm going
to make sure that that lockoutprogram says here's what

(03:10):
out-of-service locks look like.
Here's what they don't.
Here's the color they are.
Here's what they're not.
Here's a lockout lock.
Here's my lockout lock formaintenance.
Here's my lockout lock.
Color for sanitationProduction's green, maintenance
is red, maybe sanitation'spurple, whatever that looks like
.
I'm going to have thosespecifics in there.
I'm going to have specifics onhow we're complying during
transitional periods, changeoverperiods from production and

(03:31):
sanitation or when maintenancetakes over, whatever that looks
like.
The next one is we don't clearlydefine our expectations around
training.
What we want to see is veryclear, defined.
Here's what needs to be coveredand here's how we want it
covered, and here's who'squalified to provide that
training or expectations aroundwho can provide that training,

(03:54):
so it can't just be anybody thatis free that day provides that
training.
They've got to have very clearand specific qualifications and
criteria to be able to, in thiscircumstance, teach authorized
lockout tagout.
That's going to be completelydifferent than my expectations
regarding who can trainawareness level lockout tagout.

(04:14):
Those are going to be differentqualifications and we want to
make sure that we're spellingdetails like that out.
In regards to how often is thetraining, what should it include
for each person, based on theirrole, and who's qualified to do
it?
What are those qualificationsand how do we want competency
verified?
Are we accepting a test or doesit have to be hands-on
demonstration?
What does that look like?

(04:35):
Is it a hands-on demonstrationfor everybody?
One person?
You were just there to witnessthat.
What does that look like?
We want to be very specificabout those things.
Three, it's not customized.
It's just not a customizedprogram.
So we can have a standardizedprogram for a company, and I

(04:56):
agree in the concept ofstandardization across the
company because in my world, myopinion is that this helps
reduce risk.
However, there are still goingto be certain areas within each
program that are going to haveto be location specific, and
I'll give you an example.
So if I'm doing a respiratoryprogram and I have 10 feed meals
, the respiratory requirementsand when those are required and

(05:18):
when they're not, or if they'reeven required at all, could be
dependent on the type of feedI'm running and the ingredients
in them.
It may be the same, it may bedifferent, and so that's going
to be something that is going tobe dictated based on industrial
hygiene surveys done at thoseindividual facilities.
That would be something that Iwould want a location to specify
the person who wrote it or iswriting your procedures.

(05:41):
They're not there.
They're not there, or thoseprocedures and programs haven't
been reviewed in a really longtime, or you had someone write
them.
Maybe it was internal, maybe itwas external.
They don't know your location,they don't know the industry and
it's very boilerplate andgeneric.
So we want to make sure thatwe're very intentional about who

(06:02):
is writing these programs, whattheir qualifications should be,
what experience they shouldhave, what their qualifications
should be, what experience theyshould have.
And if we're not sure we havesomebody who is able to do that
and we do reach out and have athird party do it, we want to
make sure that whoever we selectis that third party, that they
know what's going on in ourbusiness.
I can go and write a lockouttagout program for a lot of

(06:24):
different facilities because I'ma safety person.
There are lots of companies, isthe point that provide
different services and they'llgive you different prices, but
what you want to make sure isthey're an expert in that
industry, they're an expert inthat field, they're an expert in
that subject matter and theyare able to be an expert at your
location.
So this is one of those itemsthat you don't necessarily want

(06:47):
to take at your location.
So this is one of those itemsthat you don't necessarily want
to take the cheapest optionavailable in regards to a vendor
coming on site and writing it.
And I would also highlyencourage you to avoid a
boilerplate program and justfill in the gaps if it's not
been made industry specific byyour corporation or by your
specific location, specific byyour corporation or by your

(07:12):
specific location.
The next one we're the only onesas safety people or the safety
department that knows theprogram or knows where it is,
knows what's in it or knowswhere to find the procedures.
These should be living,breathing documents that we're
very comfortable and ourmanagement team is very
comfortable with what theexpectations are, what is in
them, and that we can quicklyreference what is where, that

(07:32):
we're that familiar with theseprograms and we want everybody
to know.
If I go out and ask an employeeon the floor, where can I find
the lockout, tagout proceduresfor this specific piece of
equipment?
I want them to know.
And so if they aren't sure, andthey don't know that we have
them, or they've never heard ofsuch a thing, they've never seen
it, they don't know.
That's a concern that we wouldwant to make sure that we

(07:54):
address on the training side.
The last thing would be what'swritten in the program is just
not what we do at all.
It's just flat out not what wedo.
So a big one we'll see is we'vegot a new safety manager and
they love their program andthey're a very strong safety
manager where they came from andthey take that program.
They're like you know what?
We don't have one at my newplace or the one we have.
I don't like it, it's not mineand I don't think it's very good

(08:14):
.
I'm going to take mine and I'mgoing to just put a different
logo on it.
And they do this without doinga baseline, and they do this
without maybe totallyunderstanding everything that's
happening.
And this is more the case ifyou've got a safety manager that
came from a different industry,and so instead, what I'd really
want to encourage you to do is,before you change a program,

(08:35):
before you write a program, geta baseline on all shifts and
really become comfortable insideand out of what is happening
regarding that subject at thatspecific location, and then go
back and either update anexisting program to make it
site-specific, location-specific, industry-specific, or just
write a whole new one, whateverthat looks like.
But we want to make sure thatwe're getting a really good

(08:55):
baseline first and then a bonusone.
We want to make sure that welet people know what the
expectations are in regards to.
We want to make sure that welet people know what's in the
training.
We let them know what theexpectations are.
We train them according to whatis in the program and what
those expectations are.
We explain very clearly whyit's important, why it matters

(09:19):
to them.
Here's why you should care,because folks want to know that
important, why it matters tothem.
Here's why you should care,because folks want to know that.
But I will also tell you we'vegot to make sure we hold them
accountable too.
So it doesn't matter how goodour safety programs are, if no
one knows where it is, no onebelieves in it, which is a
training gap, in my opinion andno one enforces it.
And if you find that that's thecase, if you've got management

(09:41):
teams or supervisors whoeverthat are not enforcing your
programs, I think what we couldalso do in that circumstance is
just do a little bit ofmanagement education on why this
matters, why it's important.
And if you've got pushback, wecan't do this.
That doesn't make sense.
We can never make this happen.
I think part of it is it's justa joint effort and going back
to number five, back to thebaseline, and being like, well,

(10:02):
what can we do?
Because this is the intent thatwe have to meet.
So how can we meet that?
And maybe a little bit of toughlove reminder of this is a
federal requirement.
This is not whoever's opinion.
How are we going to meet thatrequirement together and make
sure that we're meeting theintent the employees are safe,
but we can also do whatever jobit is that you need done and
just have that conversation.
So that's going to be it for metoday.

(10:23):
I hope that's helpful.
If you have questions, you needsupport on your programs.
Again, we go on site and writeprograms.
We've also got in the coachingsite lots of good tips and
tricks on every subject that youcan imagine from the safety
side, on what should be in yourprogram, how to lay it out, what
to avoid, what to make sure youinclude, and so
allensafetycoachingcom is agreat resource if you're looking

(10:45):
for an economical way to dothat.
Otherwise, like I say, if youwant it off your plate, call me
and I'm happy to help you andsend some of my team out to get
you where you need to be andthen help you through that
rollout phase of implementationas well.
So that's going to be it.
Take care and we'll see younext time.
Thanks everybody, you next time.
Thanks everybody.
Thank you for listening to Safe, efficient, profitable a worker

(11:08):
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(11:28):
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