Roles of directors/managers/supervisors
Introduction
The promotion of safety and health should be considered an essential function of day-to-day good management and should not be considered as something superimposed on more important things or something of low priority which only gets done when (or if) the manager gets time.
The main duties to manage health and safety are typically placed upon the employer. As most large employers are bodies corporate it is the most senior employees, i.e. board-level directors and senior managers that enable the fulfilment of the employers’ duties.
Leaders and Managers
The general management literature suggests that the key difference between leaders and managers is that:
“Managers are people who do things right and leaders are people who do the right things”
and that the:
“unique and essential function of leadership is the manipulation of culture.”
If leadership is viewed as a process rather than an innate personal quality, the key requirements for a leader are to:
- Set a clear and credible vision of the future state the organisation is trying to achieve;
- Establish the style and tone of communication, the social architecture and organisational culture;
- Create an atmosphere of two-way trust between leaders, managers and the workforce; and
- Visibly demonstrate commitment, persistence, willingness to take risks / accept losses, consistency, self-knowledge and above all learning.
Directors Role as Health and Safety Leaders
Research by the HSE, in the UK, has shown that:
“Directors exert a fundamental influence over either standards of health and safety management or levels of health and safety performance.”
The research also estimated that effective board leadership can deliver a 5 –10% reduction in workplace accidents and ill-health.
Joint UK guidance from the HSE and Institute of Directors (IoD) on leading health and safety at work which advocates strong and active leadership from the top by:
- visible, active commitment from the board;
- establishing effective ‘downward’ communication systems and management structures;
- integration of good health and safety management with business decisions.
The guidance recommends board directors follow a four stage cycle for leading health and safety of: planning, delivering, monitoring and reviewing.
Specific recommendations include:
- Ensuring that health and safety is a regular agenda item for board meetings;
- Naming a board-level director as the health and safety ‘champion’ to send a strong signal that the issue is being taken seriously and that its strategic importance is understood;
- Taking responsibility and ‘ownership’ of health and safety, at board level and ensuring that:
• health and safety arrangements are adequately resourced;
• competent health and safety advice is readily available;
• risk assessments are carried out; and that
• employees or their representatives are involved in decisions that affect their health and safety; - Increasing ‘visibility’ of board members on the ‘shop floor’. Board members should be seen to follow all safety measures themselves and to immediately address any breaches;
- Gathering first-hand information for board-level performance reviews;
- Publishing details of health and safety and wellbeing performance annual reports to investors and stakeholders; and
- Including an assessment of senior managers contribution to health and safety performance in their appraisals.
Managers
Middle managers provide the connection between strategic apex and operating core of an organisation. For managers to be able to do things right, and to become committed to the organisation’s health and safety objectives an effective infrastructure has to be in place:
- A robust health and safety management system (e.g. ISO 45001);
- Management health and safety training;
- Clear targets for health and safety management (proactive – including positive behaviours);
- Provision of adequate resources to enable objectives to be met;
- Monitoring and review of performance against targets; and
- Recognition and reward for good health and safety performance.
How top management can demonstrate commitment
- making resources available to design, implement and maintain the occupational health and safety management system
- defining roles and responsibilities
- appointing senior managers with specific responsibility for health and safety
- appointing competent people (internal and external, including specialists) to help the organisation meet its health and safety obligations
- reviewing health and safety performance
Responsibilities of organisations who share a workplace to work together on health and safety issues
Whenever two or more undertakings engage in activities simultaneously at one workplace, they shall collaborate in applying the requirements of this Convention.
C155 – Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981
Whenever two or more undertakings engage in activities simultaneously at one workplace, they should collaborate in applying the provisions regarding occupational safety and health and the working environment, without prejudice to the responsibility of each undertaking for the health and safety of its employees. In appropriate cases, the competent authority or authorities should prescribe general procedures for this collaboration.
R164 – Occupational Safety and Health Recommendation, 1981
How clients and contractors should work together
Where clients use contractors there are shared responsibilities for ensuring the health and safety of client and contractor workforces and anyone else who may be affected by the work. If not properly managed, accidents are likely.
Safety and health in construction – An ILO code of practice
A contractor’s employees may possibly be at a greater risk than the client’s employee whilst working on the client’s site due to:
- unfamiliarity with the client’s site
- unfamiliarity with the client’s site rules and procedures
- often contractors are used for high risk activities
- lack of appropriate training
- poor supervision
Health and safety requirements should be written into the contract for the work, clearly defining the responsibilities of each party.
The extent of the responsibilities of each party will depend on the circumstances.
Management of Contractors
The HSE advocates a five-step approach on how to manage contractors and ensure safe working:
Step 1: Planning
Defining the job
The client should clearly identify all aspects of the work they want the contractor to do, including work falling within the preparation and completion phases.
Risk management
Both the client and prospective contractor should be involved in the risk management process.
The client should already have a risk assessment for the work activities of his own business. The contractor’s role involves assessing the risks for the contracted work.
The client and the contractor need to agree the risk assessment for the contracted work and the preventative and protective steps that will apply when the work is in progress. If subcontractors are involved, they should also be part of the discussion and agreement.
Specify conditions
Contractors must be made aware of the expected standards of performance. Health and safety arrangements, procedures, permit systems and safety policy statement should be shared with the contractor who should confirm their understanding and agree to work accordingly.
Step 2: Choosing a Contractor
Contractors will be selected based upon a range of criteria including availability, cost, technical competence, reliability and health and safety.
The client must take reasonable steps to satisfy themselves that the contractor is competent to do the job safely and without risks to health and safety.
The degree of competence required will depend on the work to be done.
The best way of being satisfied of a contractor’s competence is through first-hand experience. A contractor is demonstrably competent if he has previously been used successfully on a similar job (through a cycle of risk management, monitoring and review).
A pre-tender questionnaire (PTQ) may be used to broadly determine the suitability of a contractor. Questions should be designed to check the contractors:
- experience in the type of work to be one
- health and safety policies and practices
- recent health and safety performance (number of accidents etc.)
- qualifications and skills relevant to the contract
- selection procedure for sub-contractors (if sub-contractors are to be allowed), or their safety method statement
- Arrangements for:
- health and safety training e.g. safety passport; supervision
- consulting the workforce
- independent assessment of competence
- memberships of relevant trade or professional body
References may be needed to verify the information provided.
Once a contractor has been appointed pre-commencement meetings will be required to clarify responsibilities and to ensure effective management arrangements are in place.
Step 3: Contractors Working on Site
Specific arrangements will be required to:
- Manage the movements of contractors on site through visitor sign in controls and possibly permits-to-work
- Ensure that all technical and management controls are in place before allowing the work to begin e.g.:
- numbers of persons and supervisor details are confirmed
- the correct work equipment is provided
- access and egress to location of work are discussed and agreed
- suitable personal protective equipment is available and being worn
- safe system of work / method statements are understood
- any necessary permits to work are in place;
- reporting, communications and monitoring arrangements have been agreed
Information, instruction and training
All parties need to consider what health and safety information needs to be passed between them and agree appropriate ways to make sure this is done.
Instruction and training provided needs to take account of the risks arising from each parties’ work.
Co-operation and co-ordination
The client should set up regular meetings or briefings to ensure effective liaison between all the parties involved.
Consultation
The workforce should be part of the liaison arrangements set up by the client and should be involved from the outset.
Management and supervision
The greater the risk posed by the contractor’s work the greater the management and supervisory responsibilities of the client.
The client will require enough knowledge and expertise to manage and supervise the contracted work.
Step 4: Monitoring the contract
All parties should monitor their health and safety performance to check that risk assessments are current and that control measures are effective.
The level of monitoring depends on the risks – the greater the risks, the more frequent the monitoring.
Contractors and sub-contractors should carry out day-to-day checks to see that what should be done is being done; and clients should make periodic checks on the contractor’s performance to see if the work is being done as agreed.
Information from proactive monitoring and reactive investigations should be used to learn lessons and improve future performance.
Where requirements are not being met the client should take appropriate action to ensure the work is undertaken to the required standard.
Step 5: Reviewing the Work
Both the client and the contractor should review the work after completion to see if performance could be improved in future.
The client should review both the job and the contractor. Consideration should be given to the effectiveness of the planning; the contractor’s performance; and how smoothly the job went.
Lessons learnt should be recorded and used to influence future decisions.