Page 56 - Occupational Health & Safety, December 2018

STANDARDS
Companies realize that their public image, posi- tive or negative, has an impact on the quality of the workforce they want to employ, the custom- ers wanting to do business with them, and their perceived role as a good corporate citizen.
and accommodating workplaces that attract and retain capable workers at all levels. Laborers realize they do not have to accept hazardous workplace conditions in exchange for a paycheck, and talented management don’t want the extra risks of dealing with preventable accidents, which add to their already demanding list of responsibilities.
Public standing: Companies realize that their public image, positive or negative, has an impact on the quality of the workforce they want to employ, the customers wanting to do business with them, and their perceived role as a good corporate citizen. Today, news travels fast, and first impressions are lasting ones.
Making the Case to Your Stakeholders
Your organization already has a business management system (BMS) in place. It may involve a formal system such as Lean Man- ufacturing or a quality-oriented approach such as Six Sigma. Or your company may have internally evolved your own BMS for strategic planning and tactical implementation of policies, process- es, and procedures that are used to develop, deploy, and execute your business plan. Some of the common areas where systems are implemented are Financial, Administration, Operations, Person- nel, Marketing, and Risk Management. Tapping into those exist- ing communication and decision-making channels is imperative to smoothly integrating safety and health management principles into common practice. Integrating these important requirements into your existing business processes uses language other manag- ers can easily understand while avoiding unnecessary duplication of efforts or redundant documentation practices. This unifies your safety and health priorities into day-to-day operational and quality management practices.management practices.
Thoughts on Integration
If you are not already doing it, learn to speak the language of busi- ness. For example, Return on Investment (ROI) can be a powerful illustrator of the cause-and-effect nature of accident prevention. For example, incorporating an OHSMS into your existing business management system may require a hypothetical commitment of $550,000 to achieve. Projecting out what can be saved in the short term related to lost productivity due to disruption of operations from a history of significant accidents, increased insurance expens- es, public relations impacts, and the positive benefit of increased efficiencies due to improved safe work processes may return an es- timated additional profit of $1,300,000 within a three-year period. Running the ROI math:
Gross Profit ($1.3M) less Cost of Investment ($550K) equals a Net Profit of $750,000
Net Profit ($750K) divided by Cost of Investment ($550K) = 1.36 x 100% = 136% Return on Investment
Annualized (136% / 3years) at 45% ROI per year
Other suggestions include appealing to management’s sense of
the need to control risk. Puts and takes are a normal part of finan- cial analysis, but it is uncommon for a fiscal plan to include the preemptive resources to absorb a major cost event related to pre- ventable and forecastable accident(s). Other organizational issues or needs may be identified, and by applying OHSMS perspectives while working with other managers, the value of your approach should be evident. Look for opportunities to engage with non- safety, health, and environmental stakeholders in setting strategic direction and goals so that they can appreciate the value of integra- tion you have to offer. This can remove the contentious relationship of productivity vs. safety and can reframe the effort to prove that everyone wins when the job is done according to plan.
How Can the New Standards Help?
Both the ISO 45001 Global Health and Safety Standard and the ANSI/ASSP/ISO 45001-2018 version of this standard (adopted as a U.S. National Standard in April 2018) are set up with user-friendly formats that make it easily blended into existing program such as ISO 9001 - Quality Management, or ISO 14001 - Environmental Management. Annex A (of both standards) is dedicated to the pro- vision of advisory information and guidance on the use and imple- mentation of the ISO 45001 Standard.
The upcoming release of a significantly updated ANSI Z10 SMS Standard next year will also see the same improved, single-column formatting applied to smoothly integrate other ISO standards. Additionally, the new ANSI Z10 is expected to be issued with an in-depth Implementation Guide that covers the fundamentals of how to include OHSMS elements into existing business manage- ment systems. Sections of this guide provide insight as to what an effective OHSMS looks like in practice and how to enhance workers’ ability to contribute solutions to the incident prevention challenges. Information on cooperatively setting goals and objec- tives with other staff members and a very proactive approach to hazard identification and occupational health considerations are important elements being considered for inclusion in the imple- mentation guidance. Another helpful section under development addresses methods of measuring the successful implementation of the safety management system against established metrics. These should prove to be very illustrative in making the SMS business case at the executive level.
Todd Grover is the Global Senior Manager for Applied Safety Solu- tions at The Master Lock Company. He has more than 30 years of experience as a practicing safety professional and EHS Manager. His experience with a wide range of industries has involved the prepara- tion of numerous lockout policies and detailed procedures, company- specific compliance training, accident investigations, and acting as the representation of many employers during OSHA citation cases. He is a participating member of the ANSI Z244.1 committee on Control of Hazardous Energy, the ANSI Z10 Safety Management Systems Standard, as well as a delegate to the U.S. PC283 commit- tee contributing to the ISO 45001 Global Standard for Occupational Health & Safety. His participation on these committees contributes to his ability to share his personal insights on the value of these stan- dards but cannot be construed to be the official opinion of these com- mittees. Contact him via email to tgrover@mlock.com or reach him at 414-571-5625.
52
www.ohsonline.com