Once in a while, it’s useful to review the basics. If your workplace is either setting up a new worker safety training program, or evaluating your current training, it’s helpful to be reminded of the necessary elements common to all effective worker safety training regimens.

Any worker safety program must be a definitive plan of action designed to prevent accidents. Such a program is required under occupational safety and health legislation in most Canadian jurisdictions, and must include all elements required by that legislation, at a bare minimum. Because organizational needs differ from workplace to workplace, many programs will require far more. Still, it’s good to review the basics once in a while.

First, a program needs a policy statement. This policy statement is a statement of principles and general rules that will serve as a guide for action. Senior management must be committed to ensuring that the policy be carried out with no exceptions. It should have at least the same importance as the other policies in the organization, if not greater importance, since lives are potentially at stake.

Policy statements can be brief, but should contain;

· The major objectives of the program, as laid out by the organization’s health and safety philosophy;

· Management’s commitment to protect the safety and health of employees;

· A detailed plan with regard to each person or group’s accountability for occupational health and safety programs;

· A statement outlining the general responsibilities of all employees;

· A commitment that health and safety shall not be sacrificed for expediency;

· A promise that unacceptable performance of health and safety duties will not be tolerated.

The health and safety policy of every organization should be stated in clear, unambiguous, and unequivocal terms. It should be signed by the incumbent Chief Executive Officer. It should be communicated to every employee, and updated constantly. It should also be adhered to at all times, with no exceptions made.

Of course, policy statements should be followed with a comprehensive program that includes all of the following elements:

· It should lay out everyone’s individual responsibilities with regard to safety;

· It should set up a joint occupational health and safety committee;

· It should lay out a series of very clear and concise work procedures and rules

· It should set up a comprehensive employee orientation program.

· It should lay out a comprehensive safety training regimen.

· It should set up a strict regimen of constant workplace inspections, so as to spot safety hazards before there’s an accident.

· It should set up a very easy and thorough reporting and investigating protocol for accidents and hazards.

· It should set up very clear and easy to understand emergency procedures, as well as medical and first aid protocols.

· And it should include very active health and safety promotion

Any health and safety program is the joint responsibility of management and workers. Obviously, management is accountable for non-compliance with health and safety legislation, but most legislation lays out specific individual responsibilities with regard to specific health and safety activities. Therefore, it is a good idea for program administrators to include details of specific individual obligations and responsibilities into the safety program itself.

Responsibility and authority in such a program can be delegated to subordinates, giving them the right to act for superiors, but one should always be aware that the superior remains accountable for seeing that all responsibilities are carried out.

Individual responsibilities apply to every employee in the workplace, from the Chief Executive Officer to the janitor who sweeps up after a shift. When a safety coordinator has been appointed, their responsibilities should be spelled out in great detail, as well. No safety program is complete until every employee knows exactly what is expected from each and every other individual in health and safety terms. That doesn’t simply mean knowing his or her own responsibility, but the responsibilities of all others, as well.

In order to fulfill their individual responsibilities, every employee must know what those responsibilities entail. They must be given sufficient authority to carry them out and, most importantly, they must have the required ability and competence to carry them out.

Once all of the above criteria have been met, safety performance can be assessed by each individual’s supervisor alongside other job elements. In order for a health and safety program to be successful, it cannot be just an extra part of an employee’s job: it must be an integral, full-time component of each individual’s responsibilities.