Safety Awakening – “Who Needs A Safety Manual?”
May 7, 2018 No CommentsEvery large company that I’ve ever worked with has had a company safety manual. These manuals include the company’s: safety policy statement, safety policies, safety rules, and sometimes even safety procedures. But are these voluminous manuals really needed at medium and smaller sized companies?
Yes, every employer should have some form of company safety manual because it:
- Helps to prevent accidents. The manual establishes policies that are designed to both prevent work related injuries and illnesses, and mitigate damages should they occur.
- Establishes a safety culture. A safety manual clearly sets forth top management’s support of the safety program.
- Encourages safe behavior. A safety manual prescribes rules and procedures that all employees must follow in order to prevent accidents.
- Minimizes liability. Having a safety policy and safety procedures that your rigorously implement and enforce minimizes your liability as an employer for negligence.
- Helps to comply with governmental safety and health regulations. If you have safety procedures and rules that are regularly enforced, you can claim that the employee the inspector observed violating a standard was an “isolated act”. This is a proven defence against OSHA citations in the USA.
- Impresses outside inspectors. Second only to a good accident record, safety inspectors are impressed by company safety manuals (especially if they are kept up to date).
If you are a smaller company, and don’t have an in-house safety professional to write a safety manual for you – we can help. At the top of every SafetyAwakenings.com webpage is a category called “Programs“. Here you will find dozens of model programs that your can use as a template for your company’s safety manual.
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