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Is your health & safety policy doing what it needs to? Does your business have a firm handle on the data that informs your decisions?

Read the latest updates from our ISO standards subject matter experts, from auditor training to quality management software and how to support your team in root cause analysis.

7 Tips for an Effective Health & Safety Policy

How to Enhance the Value of Health & Safety Policies?

Safety Policies in the workplace are the silent guardians of our daily routines and provide an organisational structure for health and safety management. They may not be flashy or attention-grabbing, but they work diligently behind the scenes to ensure our safety and compliance. So, how do we prevent them from becoming neglected??

Here are?7 key tips?for enhancing the value of your Health and Safety Policy, prepared by?Nicola Coote, CFIOSH, MIIRSM, MCIPD, a?Chartered Safety Professional?with over 30 years’ experience.??

1. Define your Health & Safety Policy

Let’s define what a Health and Safety Policy actually is: it’s like the rulebook for staying safe at work. It lays out who’s responsible for what, when, and how to keep the workplace a hazard-free zone. Ignoring it isn’t an option – it’s there for a reason.?

The law requires that every organisation with five or more people should have a written Health and Safety Policy. The HSE Guidance on how to write one advocates it is written in three sections:??

1. Your Statement of Intent (this states?what?your organisation commits to, its objectives and strategic direction)??
2. Your Organisational Arrangements for meeting these commitments (who?will do what to meet these commitments, and what specific role holders must achieve)?
3. Your Arrangements, everyday standards, and procedures, - (how?you are going to meet your compliance obligations)

Make sure that the structure, format, and content is clear in their purpose, intent and reason for being.??

2. Involve and Engage your workers

Why Should Employees Care??

Now, let’s address the elephant in the room – why should employees (including managers) care? Well, besides the obvious fact that it’s about their own well-being, think of it as a safety net. When incidents happen, everyone gets questioned, and knowing the policies, what they require and who takes what role in delivering them can be a lifesaver. ?

Everyone in your workplace will have specific responsibilities in the policy, but they often don’t know about them, don’t understand them or simply don’t believe it really applies to them. By engaging with your teams in a way that is meaningful to them, you will achieve buy-in by increasing their understanding of your policies’ relevance to them personally.?

To get engagement and buy-in, you need to involve your workers. So, talk to them in simple and straightforward ways. Don’t try to make it sound too technical, bureaucratic or dry. Make it relevant, and most of all –?listen to them when they offer feedback or ideas that are different to your own.? Employees often don’t engage or offer feedback because they feel that no one asks them, or if they do, their feedback isn’t taken seriously.???

In our 30 + years of experience as safety practitioners, we have often found that effective solutions emerge when we talk to the people doing the job, i.e. at the proverbial coal face. After all, they are the experts in that role, task etc and they know all the pitfalls, compromises and daily risks they accept and face. Team expert safety practitioners and I often hear phrases like: “That’s how it’s always been”, “we reported the problem, but nothing happened, so we gave up” or “Why bother saying anything – nothing gets done to fix it”. ?

3. Consider basic human behaviour and needs

At the core, these elements connect deeply with basic human behaviour and needs. People have an intrinsic desire for safety and security, as outlined in?Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. At a fundamental level, we seek to avoid pain and ensure our physical

?wellbeing. This is why safety policies can resonate when they are written in a way that people can understand and communicate in a way that is quick, easy and relevant – they address this basic need directly.?

By involving employees in safety procedures, you engage their sense of responsibility and belonging. This engagement is key to making your policies relevant, effective?and?followed in practice.?Clear communication and understanding help foster trust and cooperation, which are essential components of a healthy workplace culture.?

?People are more likely to cooperate when they:?

• Understand what’s required and why,?and?
• Know what’s in it for them.?

This may sound hugely cynical, but it’s a basic human behaviour that drives us all, whether we acknowledge it or not. For some employees the “what’s in it for me” will be positive i.e. “I get to do a good job / stay safe / get promoted.? For others, it will be a simple case of “I get to keep my job / pay my rent”.?

Want to learn more about behaviour in the workplace?? Watch this space for future Behavioural Safety content.

4. Improve Ownership?

People often think that health and safety is someone else’s responsibility, not their own. As individuals, we tend to focus on the task that we were initially employed to do, e.g. production manager, or operations supervisor, and we get bogged down on the operational aspects of that role.??

When an organisation has their own internal health and safety specialist, we find that many directors, managers and employees think it is that person(‘s) job to “do the safety compliance stuff”.? That is a complete misperception. Think about this logically. How can one or two people in a team be in all places at all times to ensure that the workplace is safe, that workers are following the various rules and policies and that no one is at risk??? It is impossible.?

Here are some simple points that may improve ownership in health and safety:??

1. Link the responsibilities specified in your health and safety policy to your job descriptions so they are easy to access and specific (rather than using generic terms like “you will follow health and safety rules”). ?
2. When conducting appraisals, staff development reviews or having 1-1 discussions with your team ensure that at least one health and safety question is included. People do not like being caught out or to get something wrong.? They may not know the first time you ask, but they will make sure they are better prepared in the future. This will help them to go and check their responsibilities and consider how they can demonstrate compliance, just in case they are asked about it. ?
3. Offer praise, recognition or other positive reinforcement when an employee or team are proactive in following safety procedures and policies. It will show that your organisation is giving health and safety priority and some scrutiny and monitoring of what is going on. ?

5. Use Simple, Clear and Concise Language

Detail everything from risk assessment controls to emergency procedures. Let’s leave no stone unturned. Ensure the procedures are suitable for those needing to follow them.?

Pages of words will simply disengage. Be more creative by using images, flow charts or simple steps to follow. Avoid using jargon, technical terms (unless the policy relates to something very technical) or legal requirements. Your policy should interpret the legal requirements into practical ways to meet them in your own organisation. This way, your policy will support your management team and give your Board assurance that by following the policies your organisation is meeting the law.?

Most of all, make sure that any local protocols, e.g. for cleaning, machine start-up etc, are posted close to where the work occurs so people can quickly and easily check if they aren’t sure.?

6. Communicate your Health and Safety Policy

Ensure know what’s what when it comes to your health and safety standards. Let’s keep the lines of communication wide open. To achieve this make sure you have various channels of communication, using a variety of the following examples:?

• H&S meetings?
• Emails, including a central email where people can report concerns, feedback or suggestions for improvement?
• Toolbox talk?
• Pre-start briefings at the beginning of a shift?
• Include relevant policies in specific training modules?
• 1-1 discussions, including discussion about their view on the effectiveness of relevant policies. This will help you to check their understanding of what the policy requires and identify any pain points that might be a barrier to employees following them.?

7. Ensure Policies Aren't Forgotten or Overlooked

So, how do we ensure these policies aren’t just forgotten about? Let’s keep it simple with three key questions that can test the level of employee engagement:?

1. Do managers and employees know where to find the policies, and are they quick and easy to access??
2. Do they understand their responsibilities, and the positives/negatives of following them i.e. addressing the “what’s in it for me”??
3. Are they actively implementing these policies and taking ownership??

Ask a random sample of your team these three questions and see how they answer – you may be pleasantly surprised! However, we often find when our expert specialists ask these types of questions that managers and staff alike know there is a policy, they sometimes know why it’s there, but they cannot recall what their own responsibilities are. Even worse, when asked how they can demonstrate they are meeting their responsibilities, they find they are

Monitor and Review:?Regularly check in and update your policies to stay current. Safety is an ever-evolving game. You should be doing this at least annually as part of a health and safety management system, as well as to meet HSE guidance. If a longer frequency of official review suits your organisation better that is fine provided you are also.

Would you like to explore this topic further or simply find out more about safety policies? QCS International offers a range of health and safety consultancy and training including our CQI IRCA registered ISO 45001:2018 Health & Safety Management training courses.

Quality Management Software

We’re frequently asked if we can recommend software tools to assist in quality management.

At a time when we must consider the implications of AI and where it may be included in the next ISO 9001 standard, its more important than ever to ensure that our quality systems benefit from the best tools available. It’s not only global corporates that can benefit from quality software but micro companies and SME organisations have a range of low-cost tools and App’s at their disposal too.

Whether manufacturing a product or providing a service, ensuring quality is how organisations set themselves apart in today’s complex business landscape. Managing intricate quality processes across supply chains, sites and product portfolios can be extremely challenging without the right tools. To remain competitive, organisations must ensure they carry out rigorous quality control, checking they are meeting customer requirements and living up to expectations.

That’s the job of?quality management. Essentially, quality management must deliver consistent quality, compliance and information across all stages of operations. While this can be complex, there are tools available to help you achieve these goals. Among the many existing solutions, quality management system software can be a useful tool to manage your quality operations and build an effective supply chain.

We all know the importance of quality, but how do we define it? In essence, “quality” describes how well a product or service meets its requirements. It is underpinned by planning and enabled through continual improvement.

In exploring how quality management software can help, it is important to distinguish between two related, but distinct, terms:

Quality management: This takes place during the planning stage and of course check and act activities too, laying the foundations as processes are established, responsibilities are assigned, specifications are determined, and metrics are defined to allow us to assess performance.

Quality control: Takes place during the operational stage as teams ensure that outputs align with inputs and assess performance against the specifications established during the quality management phase.

In other words, quality management and quality control are symbiotic aspects of the same process. While quality management dictates all quality assurance methods, quality control brings them to life.

What is quality management software?

Often referred to as QMS software, this software automates the tasks and documentation needed to capture, analyse and act on data relating to quality management.

Quality management software makes it easier for businesses to?monitor, measure and improve their quality. By turning data into intelligence and actionable insights, they can move from reacting to quality events to making predictive and, eventually, proactive quality management decisions. Leading and lagging indicators and balanced scorecards can be enabled and reported, kpi’s and risk based thinking can work together.

From audits to reporting, to analytics and strategic decision making, quality management software can support reporting and clear lines of communication among all stakeholders.

Running a business means always striving to improve quality whilst being mindful of operational costs. The adoption of QMS tools helps meet these goals, whether that’s across an entire organisation or within specific departments such as quality or product development.

QMS software enables improvement, increases speed of reporting and ultimately improves customer satisfaction.

Compliance with quality standards and regulation is a key part of the QMS remit. Robust quality management software systems support organisations of all sizes in seamlessly and efficiently managing every facet of ISO 9001 across their operations. Our recommendation would be to keep an eye on the products out there, look out too for new features and developments, what’s around the corner. Quality management software might just be your next improvement.

Measurement Uncertainty

Whilst measurement uncertainty is not integral to ISO9001 itself, most quality processes require consideration of data or metrics and by default the uncertainty surrounding the data we analyse may be of interest. Typically, we monitor trends in our numbers, seek explanations as to why variance may exist in data sets, (particularly where they display variance from expected results) and generally find reasons to disregard the outliers.

Also of note in ISO 9001:2015, clause 7.1.5 Measurement Traceability where measurement uncertainty is to some extent controlled through our calibration and verification activities.

We first came across Measurement Uncertainty and the accuracy of numbers too, in flow measurement where it was an important factor in the development of software for measuring the flow of gases and liquids. Flow measurement may be one application of measurement uncertainty but it’s an interesting concept in quality management if we are to fully understand the numbers we are evaluating.

Measurement uncertainty in quality refers to the doubt that exists about the result of a measurement.?It’s an important concept in quality control and laboratory testing because it characterizes the dispersion of values that could reasonably be attributed to the measure and—the quantity being measured.

Here are some key points about measurement uncertainty:

• No measurement is perfect: Every measurement has an inherent error, which can be due to various factors such as the precision of the measurement instruments or the method of measurement.
• Components of uncertainty: Measurement uncertainty typically consists of two components—random and systematic errors. Random errors arise from unpredictable variations and can usually be reduced by increasing the number of observations.?Systematic errors, on the other hand, cannot be eliminated but can often be reduced by correction if they can be quantified appropriately.
• Reporting with confidence: Measurement uncertainty is reported with a confidence level, typically 95%, which indicates the probability that the true value lies within the uncertainty range.
• ISO standards: ISO/IEC 17025 is an international standard that requires testing and calibration laboratories to estimate and report measurement uncertainty.?This ensures the reliability and comparability of laboratory results. ISO9001 is not prescriptive in terms of measurement uncertainty but it may be relevant in some sectors.

Understanding and properly evaluating measurement uncertainty is crucial because it affects the reliability of the decisions made based on the measurement results.?Too large or too small an uncertainty can impact the quality and credibility of the results. For most purposes 95% is a good level of accuracy and underpins the importance of assessing statistical trends and monitoring variance.

To discuss aspects of statistical analysis, including sampling and measurement uncertainty, be sure to join one of our QCS CQI IRCA Registered ISO 9001 Lead Auditor training courses.

?Root Cause Analysis

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As any good lead auditor will tell you clause 10.2 of Annex SL, the template for modern ISO management system standards sets out the process for handling nonconformities.

Sandwiched between correction and corrective action (preventative action is captured in 6.1, risk and opportunity, for those that thought it might have been relevant here) is the requirement to determine the cause of the nonconformity.

If we’re to eliminate the cause of a nonconformity then we need to investigate further.

Tools available include the simple and effective 5 Why’s – asking why it happened five times will bring you closer to the root cause of any nonconformity be it a fault, accident or incident.

There are of course many alternatives sometimes prescribed in operational procedures by organisations, varying in complexity.

Root cause analysis tools are essential for identifying the underlying reasons for problems, failures, and inefficiencies. Here are some widely used tools and techniques:

·???????? Five Whys: This simple method involves asking “why” multiple times (typically five) to drill down to the root cause of a problem.

·???????? Pareto Chart: Based on the Pareto Principle, this chart helps identify the most significant factors in a set of data, showing that 80% of problems often stem from 20% of causes.

·???????? Fishbone Diagram (Ishikawa): This visual tool helps teams categorise potential causes of problems and study their interrelationships.?It resembles a fishbone, with the problem at the head and causes branching off the spine.

·???????? Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA): A proactive method that helps teams identify where and how a process might fail, allowing them to rectify issues before they turn into failures.

·???????? Fault Tree Analysis (FTA): A graphical tool that uses logic diagrams to map out the pathways leading to a failure or problem.

These tools can be incredibly effective in helping teams systematically identify and address the root causes of issues, leading to more sustainable solutions and improvements. To find out more about root cause analysis why not consider an auditor training course. From ISO 9001 quality to ISO 45001 Health & Safety Management, root cause analysis plays a crucial role in your management system and any investigations you perform relating to incidents and non-conformities.

?For fresh thinking and support in all things ISO please contact us here at QCS International. We love a challenge ,we love thinking creatively and we delight in working with our clients in all things management system related.

QCS International are a CQI IRCA Approved Training Partner based in the United Kingdom.

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