The management of safe business operations requires a systematic, ongoing effort to find and fix workplace hazards prior to workers getting injured. It’s usually referred to as a Safety and Health Management System (SHMS). An SHMS requires the support of the leadership; worker participation (including the active participation of any unions if there is one in your company) as well as hazard identification, assessment, prevention, and control opportunities for education and training; and regular evaluation and improvement.

Traditional methods blame the cause of accidents on the workers. Herbert W. Heinrich’s 1930s premise that 85-95% of accidents are caused by uninformed behavior of individuals, has triggered numerous forms of behavior-based safety (BBS). In recent years, advocates of quality have taken an active approach to safety by recognizing the fact that accidents result from processes and systems. They use quality tools to reduce the chance of accidents.

Managers must convey the message that keeping their business safe is a key part of their job. This can be accomplished through direct comments and reviews of performance and even bonuses. LyondellBasell, for example, makes it clear to managers that regardless of how low the OSHA recordable injury rate is and if a serious injury website here occurs on the premises the employees will not be eligible for the benefit of a bonus.

SAFe is flexible and scalable. This allows every organization to tailor the Framework to suit their specific development environment. To facilitate this, SAFe includes a spanning palette with additional roles and artifacts that aren’t used in Essential SAFe. Click on each icon to find out how it can applied in your environment.