How to Create a Safety Program

Follow these steps to develop your policy and program

These 8 simple steps will help make safety top-of-mind throughout your organization. This process gives you the basics for starting an effective and sustainable health and safety program in your workplace.

1. Build a safety culture

Senior managers play a big role in building a safe workplace. Leaders set the tone, provide resources, and motivate people to make safety part of everyday work. No one person has to do everything, but every workplace needs a safety champion, proper resources, and a shared commitment to keeping people safe.

Provide safety training

Training gives workers the skills and knowledge they to work safely. Everyone should have training that’s relevant to their job, and also understand the company’s safety commitment, along with their rights and responsibilities. Many employers also provide courses like First Aid and WHMIS (Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System).

Have clear safety rules

Training works best when it’s supported by clear safety rules. Common examples include:

• Report unsafe conditions or injuries right away.
• No alcohol, drugs, firearms, or horseplay at work.
• Always wear the right safety gear, such as steel-toe boots, hard hats, hearing protection, or safety goggles.
• Breaking safety rules may lead to discipline.

Keep accurate records

Keeping accurate records is also key to a strong safety program. Employers should track:

• Results of safety inspections and audits.
• Regular maintenance of equipment and machines.
• Safety training (who took what course and when).
• Reports of injuries, illnesses, and incidents.
• Minutes from safety committee meetings.

By focusing on good communication, solid training, and consistent record-keeping, employers and employees together can create and maintain a safe workplace.

Resources:

Getting started is as simple as having employers and workers come together and take the PWI Safety Survey

Learn how employers can build safety training that develops real-world skills and supports confident, safe work in this helpful webinar: The Value of Training—Beyond the Checklist

2. Write an Occupational Health & Safety policy

Having a health and safety policy shows that safety is a top priority in your workplace. It tells employees that unsafe practices are not acceptable and that everyone has a role to play.

Your policy should include:

• A statement of your commitment to employee health and safety
• How your workplace approaches health and safety
• The goals of your safety program
• The responsibilities of both management and employees
• A clear expectation that safe behaviour is required and encouraged

Make your policy clear and concise

A safety policy doesn’t need to be long or complicated—it just needs to make sense for your business and employees. Once you have a clear and concise policy, make sure every employee reads it, understands it and reflects it in the way they work. Then review the policy annually and update it whenever necessary.

Sample Policy Statement:

ABC Company will make every effort to provide a healthy and safe work environment. All supervisors and employees must be dedicated to reducing the risk of injury and illness.

As an employer, ABC Company is ultimately responsible for the health and safety of our employees.

Supervisors will be held accountable for the health and safety of employees under their supervision. Supervisors also are responsible to ensure that machinery and equipment are safe, and that employees follow established safe work practices and procedures.

Employees must protect their own health and safety and that of others by following the law, and the company's safe work practices and procedures.

It is in the best interest of all of us to consider health and safety in every activity. Commitment to health and safety must be demonstrated at every level of this company.

President ABC Company

3. Create an Occupational Health & Safety program

Once you create your safety policy, the next step is building a safety program to put into action. A safety program shows your commitment to protecting your workers and helps prevent injuries on the job. Also remember, employers with 20 or more employees are required by law to have a workplace health and safety program.

Every workplace is different, so safety programs will vary depending on the type of work, company size, and level of risk. But most programs share the same goals: meeting legal requirements, reducing risks, and keeping employees safe and at work.

When creating a safety program, make sure to:

• Plan how the program will be rolled out
• Assign and explain safety responsibilities
• Set clear standards to measure success
• Involve employees in planning and feedback
• Find, assess, and control workplace hazards
• Establish steps to investigate and resolve incidents
• Provide ongoing training and communication
• Track results and make improvements over time

Resources:

Use these resources to guide your Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committee (JOHSC) or Safety Representative.

JOHSC and Safety Reps slideshow

JOHSC and Safety Representatives Discussion Guide

4. Know your responsibilities

Safety is the law in Nova Scotia for both the employer and the worker. As an employer, take the time to understand your rights and responsibilities. You should also understand what is required by law to maintain a safe work environment.

Resources:

Workplace safety is everyone’s responsibility. Learn about the Internal Responsibility System

Learn more with these resources that give workers and employers a better understanding of individual responsibilities within the workplace:

Workplace Health, Safety and the IRS: Foundations slideshow

Workplace Health and Safety Foundations Discussion Guide

5. Have a safety committee or representative

Employers can build a strong safety culture by encouraging participation and commitment from everyone. In many workplaces, this is done through a Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committee (JOHSC). In Nova Scotia, a JOHSC is required by law if you have 20 or more employees.

The benefit of a JOHSC is that it brings together:

• Workers, who know the job and its risks, and
• Management, who understand company policies and resources.

By working together, the committee can solve health and safety issues more effectively and build teamwork.

Common JOHSC activities include:

• Helping develop and carry out safety programs
• Promoting safety awareness among staff
• Reviewing worker concerns or complaints
• Inspecting workplaces for hazards
• Recommending safety improvements to management
• Taking part in injury or incident investigations
• Checking if safety programs are working
• Recording meeting minutes and recommendations

Safety in small businesses

A full JOHSC may not be possible for smaller businesses. If you have 5 or more employees, you must have a Safety Representative instead. This person plays a similar role to the committee and ensures worker concerns are heard and addressed. Make sure your representative takes advantage of the Small Business Safety Toolkit to identify and control safety hazards.

6. Identify and control hazards

In many workplaces, some hazards are unavoidable because of the type of work being done. A business that values safety looks for these hazards and does everything possible to reduce the risks of injuries or damage.

Common Workplace Hazards

One of the best ways to spot hazards is to do regular workplace inspections with your Safety Committee or Safety Representative. A checklist of these common workplace hazards can make inspections easier and help you stay focused:

People

• Not wearing appropriate safety gear
• Not following appropriate safety procedures

Materials

• Improper handling of hazardous materials

Equipment

• Inadequate machine guards or barriers
• Defective equipment
• Wrong tools or equipment for the job
• Inadequate warning systems

Environment

• Poor walkway maintenance
• Overcrowding
• Poor ventilation
• Poor lighting
• Extreme temperature or noise levels
• Untidy workplace

Process

• Problems created by the design, pace and type of work

Conduct job hazard analysis

You also should review individual jobs to determine potential hazards and procedures to control them. The basic stages in conducting a job hazard analysis are:

• Select the task to be analyzed
• Break the tasks down into a sequence of steps
• Observe an experienced worker perform the job
• Identify potential hazards
• Eliminate the hazard, contain the hazard, revise the work process and reduce the exposure
• Write the steps in a procedure to do the work safely and communicate it to the employees affected

Resources:

Sample workplace inspection checklist (PDF)

Sample task analysis worksheet (DOC)

7. Learn from experience

Looking at what went wrong in the past can help prevent it from happening again. Most incidents don’t have just one cause. By finding the reasons and fixing them, you reduce the chance of a repeat. Remember: the goal is fact-finding, not blame.

When investigating an incident:

• Don’t delay your inquiry. Be quick to get on the scene and look around.
• Collect details about what happened before, during, and after the event. Take photos, measurements, or sketches to capture details. This helps uncover the root causes so changes can be made
• Watch for patterns—if the same kind of problem keeps happening, focus on preventing it.

Communication is key to your investigation

Talk to witnesses separately to gather clear facts, not opinions. Asking clear, concise questions increases the chances of getting helpful answers: For example, ask:

• Who was involved
• Who saw what happened
• The sequence of events
• The location and conditions
• Possible causes and ideas for prevention

In the event of a serious injury

If there’s a serious injury, don’t disturb the scene unless it’s to help the injured worker or protect property. Sometimes, government inspectors or police may need to investigate.

Once all the information is gathered, analyze it and take action to stop the same thing from happening again. Learn more about what to do if an injury happens.

8. Establish a return-to-work program

A return-to-work program (RTW) is a plan to help an injured worker get back to their job as soon as it’s safe. Doing safe, suitable work can often be an important part of recovery after a workplace injury.

A good return-to-work program takes teamwork. When an injury happens, everyone involved needs to:

• Share the same goal: helping the worker return to work safely and on time.
• Know their role and responsibilities in making that happen.

Learn the steps to creating an effective return-to-work program in your workplace.