TITLE:

ES&H Manual

 

DOCUMENT ID:

3700 Safety Observation Program

 

 

1.0            Purpose

 

This document describes the Jefferson Lab Safety Observation (SO) Program.  This program describes a process in which management at all levels regularly visit work areas, observe work practices and conditions, and discuss safety of the job with employees.  The framework of this “Safety Observation” helps people resolve safety issues and concerns, recognize and acknowledge safe work practices, and gain employee commitment to correct unsafe practices.  This is done in a non-threatening, collaborative manner.  The SO framework also provides for consideration of other safety issues beyond those specifically observed.

 

SO works as a key tool within Jefferson Lab’s Integrated Safety Management System (ISMS).  It is designed to enable effective sampling and measurement that lead to improvement in workplace safety.  SO is a powerful tool for reducing injuries by recognizing and eliminating unsafe work practices.

 

Text Box: NOTE:  Observations may be used as input for the Jefferson Lab Safety Incentive Program.

 

2.0            Responsibilities

 

Text Box: NOTE:  Management authority may be delegated at the discretion of the responsible manager.

 

Director’s Safety Council

·         Develops, implements, and continuously improves the SO process.

·         Request summary SO data from management and review.

 

All Levels of Management

·         Conduct SOs to make their own contribution to improving safety in their areas, as well as to visibly demonstrate their personal commitment to both safety in general, and to the SO process specifically

·         Review and analyze SO data regularly, in order to:

o   Monitor the safety behavior and performance of their organization

o   Define appropriate action to correct deficiencies

o   Monitor and ensure execution of follow-up actions

o   Monitor the effectiveness of changes designed to reduce unsafe acts

o   Monitor and ensure the integrity and quality of the SO Process

·         Provide summary SO data to the Director’s Safety Council.

 

3.0            Expectations

 

3.1              Philosophy

A basic concept driving the SO process is management looking after people – getting into the workplace and looking for opportunities to reduce the risk of injury.  When recognizing unsafe practices, the basic reaction is concern for employees’ safety.  SO is intended to foster constructive dialog between a line manger and worker that results in worker recognition of the need to modify behavior.  The goal is persuasion and agreement supported by genuine concerns expressed for the employees’ health and welfare rather than “enforcement”.  The safety issue is recognized and resolved together by the worker and line manager.  The goal is employee engagement and greater commitment to improved personal and organizational safety.

 

SO is a collaborative improvement process without blame or punishment.  To maintain employee support of the SO program as one of Jefferson Lab’s safety management tools, it is crucial that it be conducted and recognized as completely separate and apart from any disciplinary activities.  Although the observer’s name is included in the observation report, nothing is recorded that identifies the worker(s) observed.

 

The SO program emphasizes unsafe acts (behaviors, practices) rather than unsafe conditions.  An unsafe act is conduct or behavior that creates a hazard, or fails to avoid a hazard, and therefore may lead to someone’s injury, directly or indirectly, with greater than negligible probability.  An unsafe act may or may not violate established safety rules, procedures, or common practice.  Inaction, as well as action, can constitute an unsafe act.

 

A condition, associated with facilities, tools, equipment or the general environment, is unsafe if it presents a hazard for others, which can lead to injury with greater than negligible probability.  In the vast majority of cases, unsafe conditions are the result of unsafe acts; therefore an unsafe act may be inferred from the evidence it leaves behind as an unsafe condition.

 

The sources of unsafe conditions are not always easy to identify.  To the extent that the unsafe acts that underlie unsafe conditions are difficult to recognize and address, we tend to use the ‘unsafe condition’ label for the problem and correct it, without eliminating the causes, and thus failing to ensure prevention.  For example, removing a tripping hazard from a walk-path corrects this unsafe condition, but only through changing the behavior of the people, who created or accept the unsafe housekeeping conditions, can we eliminate the potential for injury.  Similarly, safety problems with equipment operation may be attributable to the unsafe acts of its designers, but they are often unknown or inaccessible.  It may be tempting to label these as unsafe conditions, but this does not help – we need to take responsibility for correcting the deficiencies and rendering the equipment safe.

 

3.2              Benefits

The systematic collection and interpretation of SO data will foster recognition of the safety behavior patterns at Jefferson Lab and assist line managers to take appropriate corrective measures to address broader safety issues.  The purposes of the SO process is to:

·         Recognize and correct unsafe acts and conditions, such as procedural, ergonomic, positional and housekeeping deficiencies

·         Assess the effectiveness of various safety management processes and determine how they can be improved

·         Reinforce and raise safety standards across the organization

·         Increase employee awareness and motivation for safety

·         Create both the commitment and the understanding to resolve the issues behind observed unsafe acts and condition, to effectively prevent them from causing injury

·         Build the desired safety culture – one conversation at a time

·         Eliminate incidents and injuries

 

3.3              Program Elements

The procedure for conducting SO sessions is described in the ES&H Manual Chapter 3700 Appendix T1 Safety Observation Procedure, which implements the program described in this document.  It addresses training of managers to make them effective users of the process, how to plan and conduct SO sessions, and how to analyze the results of the sessions.

 

3.3.1        Training

Only those managers formally trained in conducting SOs  may practice this process on their own.  However, trained managers may include other managers, not yet trained, and even non-supervisory employees, in their SO sessions.

 

3.3.2        Conducting SO

The core of a SO session is engaging the observed employees in a conversation about safety and safe behavior.

 

3.3.3        Analyzing

While the principal benefits of SO are from direct, face-to-face communication about safety between manager and employee, analyzing the results of SOs offers the opportunity to generate additional positive change in the organization’s safety culture.

 

To facilitate this analysis the manager completes a SO Report following each SO session.  A web-based tool is available for this purpose.

 

4.0            References

 

ISMS Program Description

ES&H Manual Chapter 3700 Appendix T1 Safety Observation Procedure

ES&H Manual Chapter 3700 Appendix T2 Safety Observation Report Procedure

 

 

 

ISSUING AUTHORITY

CHAPTER AUTHOR

APPROVAL DATE

EFFECTIVE DATE

EXPIRATION DATE

REV.

 

 

 

ESH&Q Division

Bob May

11/19/08

11/19/08

11/19/11

0

 

This document is controlled as an on line file.  It may be printed but the print copy is not a controlled document.  It is the user’s responsibility to ensure that the document is the same revision as the current on line file.  This copy was printed on 10/12/2009.