Whose Job is it?
Issue # 66
August, 4, 2008
Every organization is faced with a variety of safety hazards. Depending upon the complexity of operations, these hazards can vary significantly between departments, and in every case they need to be understood and properly addressed in order to be OSHA compliant. This includes written programs as well as the required periodic training and inspections that must take place.
The question is who should do the training and inspections; the department supervisor or someone else who is brought in because they have more knowledge on safety. I believe it should be the supervisor based upon the following three reasons:
1. The supervisor is visible by nature of being on the job all day, and should take a role as authority. Someone who shows up temporarily as an authority to do training and then leaves is viewed as gone. This can lead to a sense of "out of site, out of mind".
2. When someone else does the instructing, it relieves the supervisor from getting a thorough understanding of the subject. As a result, situations may arise that are not recognized as potential problems and therefore go unaddressed.
3. Responsibility for the safety of employees in a particular department should be fixed on one person. When safety training is done by someone besides the supervisor, it becomes too easy to place blame elsewhere when something goes wrong.
Finally, the supervisor should also be responsible for, or at least play a major role in, any investigations of accidents or near-misses in their department. After all, how else are they going to learn first hand how to prevent the situation from reoccurring?
Kempkey Insurance Services goes beyond insurance by designing and implementing risk management programs for growth oriented businesses. We help our clients maximize the value of their insurance dollars and minimize their potential for unwanted surprises. Ed Kempkey can be contacted at (888) 536-7539 extension 2188, or at ed@kempkey.com .