The Safety Management Plan Is Crucial For Ensuring Workplace Safety. (70 Characters)

You are representing a construction firm that is bidding on a $2m medical lab renovation project, and the owner/client (me) has asked as part of your RFP submission to submit a Safety Management Plan that reflects your firm's approach to construction safety. It should be your program that contains the guidelines as to how you will provide a safe workplace environment for your employees.

Your Plan should include the following at a minimum, but certainly you are welcome to submit more content if you so desire. My interest is more is in you concentrating on giving the best effort and providing the best response and materials on the minimum content, outlined below:

Safety Culture - your org's safety goal or mission statement; what to expect from management; what management should expect from you; critical success factors Safety Roles and Responsibilities - Safety Office? (If you are using one), Project Manager, Project Superintendent, Subcontractors.

Preconstruction Safety - pre-con risk assessments, using OSHA's website (or however you decide) to review subcontractor safety performance.

The organization’s safety goal is to reduce the amount of injuries described by OSHA regulations by 20% over the next three years. This goal is measurable and has a long term aspect to it. To ensure that the goal is met, the organization will undertake monthly training exercises for all employees. Employees will be trained on how to ensure their safety, as well as the safety of their colleagues. All new employees will also be trained extensively. Additionally, existing experienced staff will be assigned a new employee for on the job training to further increase their awareness on safety matters (Li & Poon, 2013).

The management expects to keep all accidents at the site at a bare minimum. There should be no more than five accidents over the duration of the exercise. Additionally, management commits to ensure that only employees who are fully trained on safety are deployed to the site. The company will install safety equipment and tools to the site, and further equip each worker with personal safety gear required to work at the site (Müller & Jugdev, 2012).

The office will be led by the project manager, who together with the subcontractors will be responsible for ensuring safety for workers. The project manager is responsible for coming up with a project implementation program that takes care of safety. This includes a mechanism to report any issues that threaten safety and having them addressed promptly. The project manager is also responsible for the identification of human errors and negligence that might result in an accident if not addressed. This includes carelessness and drug abuse. Subcontractors, on the other hand, are responsible for applying their training and experience in safeguarding the health of those around them, as well as themselves. They should report any possibilities that an accident could occur, and actively participate in its resolution. Should there be any issues beyond their control, these issues should be forwarded to management for further action (Müller & Jugdev, 2012; Alli, 2008).

Before the construction commences, a thorough assessment will be conducted. It will be assisted by stakeholders of all concerned parties – the client company, the contracting company, and where possible, officials from OSHA. Representatives of the workers can also be involved to add a different perspective. A thorough analysis of the site and identification of all hazards should be done, and solutions to them indicated. Employees will receive training and will be asked to familiarize themselves with the contents of the approved health and workplace safety policy. This statement will be vetted and approved by OSHA (Shafer, 2008).

References

Alli, B. (2008). Fundamental Principles of Occupational Health and Safety. Geneva: International Labour Office.

Li, R., & Poon, S. (2013). Construction Safety. London: Springer.

Müller, R., & Jugdev, K. (2012). Critical Success Factors: Pinto, Slevin and Prescott - the elucidation of project success. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 5 (4), 757-775.

Shafer, C. (2008). Preconstruction Safety Plan for Safety Excellence. American Society of Safety Engineers, 53 (12), published online.