Seven Tips For Developing Your Safety Program

7 Tips for developing your safety program

Developing and implementing a safety program can be a difficult endeavor, especially if you are in charge of facilities, operations, or when your job has secondary responsibilities. Where do you begin when there is so much to learn? What should you do in this situation?

At Kingswood, we help you take a comprehensive holistic approach to ensure the safety of your employees, volunteers and buildings. When starting out it's critical to take the time to understand your "security culture", identify the correct methodology that works for your organization, and then plan the best way for you to get from point A to point B.

Here are a few things to help you get started:

TIP ONE: Make an organizational commitment to safety

One of the areas where safety and security programs fall short is the failure to identify the security culture, which is often combined with a lack of commitment to making their surroundings safer. Most of the time, this can be remedied by including safety into your organizations core beliefs. A solid goal statement that includes safety and is approved by senior management will go a long way towards establishing a stronger "security culture" within your organization.

TIP TWO: Learn an organizational commitment to safety

Many organizations have legal requirements that should be followed in relation to food, housing, safety and your organization might be the same? Many of these are governed by state and federal laws. Do you know any and all regulatory requirements you are expected to follow? Start by building a list!

TIP THREE: Identify your Risks and hazards

"You don't know what you don't know," as the saying goes. If you don't know what your risks and hazards are, how can you develop an effective risk management framework to manage or mitigate them through a safety program? Building a safety program requires an understanding of risk inside your organization. Your program will be able to grow as it evolves but start by seeing if you can identify the primary hazards that could cause harm to your employees, property, and reputation.

TIP FOUR: Develop safety processes and programs

Developing processes and policies to address safety within your organization is key to the growth and ongoing success of your program. Conduct regular worker led inspections, have Emergency Action Plans (EAP’s) and Business Continuity Plans (BCP) in place. This will allow you to train staff and volunteers for a pre-planned response.

TIP FIVE: Educate your organization

In an emergency, your employees will drop to the level of training they have received. What kind of training do they receive on your organizations security polices and procedures? How will your staff and any volunteers know how to respond if your security processes aren't documented? Here are a few areas where training would help increase your governance, compliance with laws and help create a stronger security culture amongst your teams.

Remember to track all your organizations training in a management tool or spreadsheet to demonstrate good governance or produce for any later audit.

TIP SIX: Investigate and track all accidents and incidents

Keeping track of all accidents and events, depending on the size of your organization, could be a combination of people's responsibilities. Perhaps you have a safety lead, a facilities manager, or a member of the operations team in charge of this area of governance. It may even be backed up by human resources. It is critical (and frequently the requirement) to preserve a documented record of all safety and security occurrences, regardless of who it is. To grow your plan, it is important to conduct a study (after action review) of the core cause (root cause analysis) of the incident and make changes where possible.

TIP SEVEN: Review your program

"When will we not have to worry about the safety and security at our building?" a member of a leadership committee said to us during a recent meeting. The answer was straightforward. Never. Security is a never-ending process. Every year, you should assess your organization's training as well as its policies, procedures and plans. You're looking for things that are working to give praise, but you're also identifying areas of improvement.

Simon Osamoh is a British American and founder of Kingswood Security Consulting and the Worship Security Academy. He spent 14 years as a Detective in England working serious and organized crime. He moved to the United States to Head Counter Terrorism at Mall of America, Minnesota. Simon is a Christian and has spent over a decade helping non-profits stay safe and secure. He is the author of three books, Securing Church Operations, Church Safety Responding to Suspicious Behavior and 10 Powerful Strategies for Conflict De-escalation. He is the host of the Church Security Made Simple Podcast and a member of the Worship Facility Editorial Advisory Board.

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