Safety Program Review
For those of us whose job entails reviewing safety programs for contractors, Is there anything specific that you look for?
I'm just looking to check myself and make sure I am not missing something! Some key items I look for: HAZCOM, Incident reporting, training (frequency, certification, material covered), drug testing, JSA/JHA's as well as large policy areas specific to their scope of work on site.
Comments (2)
I review these all the time and there's a LOT to look for. It's actually pretty time consuming if you do it manually, but not bad at all if you use a third-party contractor vetting site (e.g., ISNetworld).
It's not only looking to see if they have the program in the first place, but moreso to see what's IN their program. For example, if I'm looking at a Hot Work program, I'm looking to see how they define "hot work", which will tell me how they trained their workers to identify hot work operations. Many companies only see hot work as operations/tasks producing flames or sparks, but if you go by the NFPA 51B definition (which OSHA refers to), they also include any heat source capable of causing a fire or explosion. We actually point out this detail when we do various trainings for companies and we show them a CSB video where two people were killed inside a confined space when a heat gun fell in some resin (I think that's what it was) and started a fire. They found that the company's definition of "hot work" (from their written program) didn't cover heat-producing items (no flames or sparks), so the workers didn't see it as "hot work", and therefore didn't fill out a hot work permit or take any other hot work precautions.
If you identify gaps like this in their written programs, you will nearly always find the same gaps in their training programs, enforcement of the program, etc.
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