Introduction to the golden rules of safety
In our previous articlewe laid the foundations of the approach by exploring the importance of implementing safety golden rules. In this new article, we're going to explain the second stage, which is just as crucial to ensuring a proper implementation: Drafting the safety golden rules.
We will explore the drafting process in detail, highlighting best practices, pitfalls to avoid and how to ensure that your golden rules are not only effective, but also understood by your employees.
Aegide International has the competency to position itself either as a facilitator of the process to support the SterrCo in making decisions, or as an advisor by involving its internal resources to lead workshop and propose golden rules. Finally, the SteerCo approves the content and agree to make the Safety Golden Rules public.
How do you draft your safety golden rules?
The wording of the golden rules must be as simple as possible, to ensure its consistency, be uninterpreted and understood by all stakeholders.
In addition to these golden rules, specific instructions related to the main title are often written. Once again, these instructions need to be as simple as possible, while conveying a powerful message and implementing a safety mindset.The point is to emphasize every measure that needs to be taken to carry out the activity safely, since failure to do so can have fatal consequences.
The safety golden rules as a mitigation measure
Here are a few examples of golden rules:
- "I always consider a load as a potential hazard".
- "Before I act, I analyze the risks and take all necessary measures to guarantee my safety".
- "I'm adopting the right gestures and postures for my future life!"
- "I request authorization for any change in procedure".
Fundamentals for drafting safety golden rules
Best practice dictates that a company should define around 10 golden rules to facilitate the appropriation by all employees.
The safety golden rules are drafted in clear and concise sentences by designated employees during dedicated workshops, for which Aegide International can intervene to facilitate and guide discussions. It is essential that the workshop groups are made up of multi-disciplinary teams to ensure that the golden rules are understood and adopted by all personnel.
The workshops are led using a standardized, methodological approach that ensures active participation and constructive reflection in line with the results of the analysis previously presented.
Once the content and objectives of each golden rule have been validated, the safety management system manager records the following items in a Standard Operating Procedure:
- Methodology for updating the golden rules,
- Roles and responsibilities,
- Means to sensitize and enforce them,
- Means of verifying appropriation,
- The decision-making chain in case of deviation
Pitfalls to avoid
Implementing the Safety Golden Rules approach has its advantages and benefits for the organization, and as with any new development in a company, care must be taken to avoid a few pitfalls.
Many companies have already put in place and shared their safety golden rules. It might be tempting to benchmark existing golden rules, select those that are relevant to our organization, and then integrate them into the system.
This approach fails to analyze the organization's main risks, identify the relevant preventive measures and draw up customized golden rules, which can lead to inconsistencies between the golden rules statement and operational activities, thereby undermining the credibility of the approach.
A HSE manager who decides to implement the approach independently within his department, following a methodology: analysis of activities, identification of the main risks and means of prevention drafting of golden rules, then communication and awareness program.The methodology seems relevant, but it does not involve all departments, nor all hierarchical level. The absence of collaborative work, involvement and consultation of a cross-functional staff group considerably reduces the chances of success, due to a lack of engagement and understanding inducing a longer appropriation time.
A final pitfall to avoid is entrusting the drafting of golden rules to people with little experience of the organization, operational activities, technical aspects and safety management system in place.
It limits the possibility of using an internal language, which is essential to ensure that the prevention message is effectively disseminated to all staff.
The 3 essential best practices to remember when drafting safety golden rules
Customization to company activities and issues:
Lead
workshops
.
HSE /
organizational knowledge
In the next and final article of this series, we will present you the key elements for a communication campaign that's up to the assignment, to ensure stakeholder appropriation and involvement.
