Z10 the benchmark for safety standards

By Bob Carruth
Risk Control Specialist

It is not uncommon for a county government to struggle with its safety program. Often, these programs are borrowed or brought in from the outside, are usually related to industrial or construction safety, and are not geared for the multifunctional environment that is the county government. Many times, these safety programs begin to take on the feel of the "flavor of the month" club.

County governments are not the only ones facing this issue. Many organizations struggle with how to design and implement a safety program and then how to judge the effectiveness of their program.

This confusion has been exacerbated by the rise in the number of international standards and accreditation bodies. In 1999 the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) approved the Z10 committee, with the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) as its secretariat. This committee, comprised of representatives from government, industry and organized labor, as well as technical experts in the field of occupational safety and health, began the task of drafting a consensus-based standard for what an organizational health and safety management system should look like. As a result of the committee's work, ANSI Z10 was published and approved by the committee on July 25, 2005.

Using best practices from across the full spectrum of the organizations represented, the standard provides a common platform and benchmark to evaluate the organizational structure and best practices for the implementation and maintenance of a safety management system. Although adoption is totally voluntary, it is still used as a reference for determining strengths and weaknesses in an organization's health and safety program.

The concept of the standard is to promote continual improvement of the health and safety program, which should result in a reduction in the number of incidents and increased employee productivity and morale as the process continues to work.

The sections in the standard are laid out to match the basic steps of a continual improvement process. Although it would be reasonable to expect the standard to include a detailed checklist on what has to be done to address hazards and control incidents, the standard does not offer this level of detail. Instead, the standard focuses on the process of managing health and safety and what needs to be addressed to accomplish this. The five major components of the health and safety management system include:

1. Management Leadership and Employee Participation: Provides guidelines on what it means to lead the health and safety program at the senior management level, as well as how employees are included in the management process.

2. Planning: Details how to conduct initial and follow-up assessments of risk exposures, how to develop objectives for the health and safety process, and how to allocate resources to implement the plan.

3. Implementation and Operation: Provides the framework for the major portions of a health and safety management system. This includes the operational elements, education and training, communication of the program, and program documentation and records maintenance.

4. Evaluation and Corrective Action: How to monitor the safety plan utilizing metrics, assessment and audits to ensure compliance with the system by subordinate elements. Included in this would be the investigation of incidents to determine corrections needed in the program.

5. Management Review: Periodic review of senior management to determine if the objectives developed in the original plan have been effective in achieving the desired outcomes. This is a formal process and sets the stage for corrections or changes in the overall health and safety management system to drive further improvement.

ANSI Z10 can be a successful tool for members of the NCACC Risk Management Pools who are looking to assess the effectiveness of their safety programs. We will provide additional articles explaining each of the components in detail over the next several months. November's topic will be the key components needed for senior management to lead the health and safety process and how to get employees more involved.