5 Signs Your Company Has Outgrown its Safety Resources
Business growth brings new opportunities, but it also brings new safety responsibilities.
As a company adds employees, projects, equipment, locations, and customers, the safety demands placed on management and employees can grow just as quickly. What worked when the company was smaller may no longer provide the time, expertise, or resources needed to effectively manage workplace safety.
That doesn’t necessarily mean your company needs to hire a full-time safety professional. In many cases, supplemental safety support from an experienced safety consulting firm can provide the additional expertise and capacity your organization needs.
Here are five signs that your company may have outgrown its current safety resources.
1. Safety Responsibilities Keep Getting Added to Someone’s Already-Full Workload
In many organizations, safety responsibilities initially fall to someone who already has another primary role.
It might be an HR manager, operations manager, project manager, superintendent, or company owner. When the company is small, this arrangement may work reasonably well.
As the company grows, however, safety responsibilities can become increasingly difficult to manage alongside everything else.
Safety management isn’t just about responding when something goes wrong. It requires time for inspections, training, documentation, program development, employee communication, regulatory updates, incident investigations, and corrective action.
If safety has become another item on an already-overloaded to-do list, important tasks may eventually be delayed or overlooked.
A warning sign: Safety is being managed when someone “has time” rather than as a consistent part of your operations.
2. Safety Inspections Aren’t Happening Consistently
Regular workplace inspections are an important part of identifying hazards before they result in an injury, property damage, or regulatory violation.
But inspections can be difficult to maintain when the people responsible for conducting them are also responsible for running projects, managing employees, meeting production goals, or handling administrative responsibilities.
A missed inspection may not seem significant by itself. Over time, however, inconsistent inspections can mean that hazards remain unidentified or that previously identified solutions aren’t being followed through to completion.
An effective inspection process should do more than identify problems. It should help management understand:
- What hazards were identified
- What corrective action is needed
- Who is responsible for addressing the issue
- When corrective action should be completed
- Whether the corrective action was effective
If inspections are becoming inconsistent or primarily reactive, your company may need additional safety resources.
3. Your Written Safety Programs Haven’t Kept Pace With Your Operations
Your company may have a safety manual but when was the last time it was actually reviewed?
Companies change.
You may have added new equipment, expanded into new types of work, opened another location, hired additional employees, changed work processes, or taken on projects with different hazards.
Your written safety programs should reflect those changes.
A program that accurately described your operations five years ago may no longer address the hazards employees encounter today.
A good safety program should be more than a document that sits on a shelf. It should provide employees and supervisors with practical guidance for working safely and should be supported by training, implementation, inspections, and management involvement.
If your safety program hasn’t been reviewed recently, or if employees and supervisors don’t know what it contains, it may be time for an update.
4. Employee Training Is Becoming Reactive
Training is most effective when it is proactive rather than something that happens only after a problem occurs.
Consider how your company typically responds when a safety deficiency is identified.
Does the process look like this?
Problem → Incident or OSHA concern → Corrective action → Training
Or does it look more like this?
Identify hazards → Establish expectations → Train employees → Monitor performance → Correct deficiencies
The second approach is much more proactive.
Training should be based on the hazards employees actually encounter and the responsibilities associated with their jobs. Depending on the workplace, that may include topics such as fall protection, hazard communication, respirable silica, lockout/tagout, powered industrial trucks, confined spaces, PPE, or other job-specific hazards.
If safety training is consistently being scheduled because something has already gone wrong, it may be a sign that your company needs a more structured approach.
5. Your Safety Manager or Internal Safety Team Is Stretched Too Thin
Having a dedicated safety professional is a significant advantage, but even experienced safety managers can become overwhelmed as a company grows.
Consider a company that has expanded from a handful of projects to operations across multiple locations.
The safety manager may now be responsible for:
- Multiple jobsites or facilities
- Employee training
- Inspections
- Incident investigations
- Safety committee meetings
- Written programs
- Regulatory compliance
- Recordkeeping
- Corrective actions
- Management reporting
At some point, there simply may not be enough hours in the day.
Adding supplemental safety support doesn’t mean replacing your internal safety professional. It can give that person additional capacity to focus on higher-priority responsibilities while experienced consultants assist with inspections, training, program reviews, special projects, or other needs.
What Does Supplemental Safety Support Look Like?
There isn’t one solution that works for every company.
Some organizations need a comprehensive review of their safety program. Others need someone to perform regular inspections at their jobsites or facilities. Some need assistance developing training programs, conducting employee training, supporting a safety committee, or addressing a specific OSHA compliance issue.
Ongoing consulting support may make the most sense.
The important thing is to identify where your organization has gaps and determine what level of support is appropriate.
Don’t Wait for an Incident to Tell You That You Need More Resources
One of the most expensive times to discover a weakness in your safety program is after an incident, serious injury, regulatory inspection, or other significant event.
A proactive approach allows your company to identify gaps before they become larger problems.
If your company is growing and safety responsibilities are growing with it, it may be time to take a closer look at your current resources.
CCI Can Help
Compliance Consultants, Inc. provides professional safety consulting services to businesses throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, and Florida. And we’re continuing to expand our reach.
Our services can include:
- Workplace safety inspections and audits
- Written safety programs and program updates
- Employee and supervisor training
- Safety committee assistance
- OSHA compliance assistance
- Incident investigation
- Ongoing safety consulting
We don’t believe every company needs the same safety solution. Our goal is to understand your operations, identify potential gaps, and help determine what level of support makes sense for your organization.
Think your company may have outgrown its current safety resources?
