Developing and Implementing a Safety Plan

Developing and Implementing a Safety Management Plan

Putting Safety Management Plans into Google will give a variety of responses and a number of examples. It is obvious the term means different things to different people.

First of all we have to sort out what we mean by the term Safety Management Plan.

I have seen it used in 13 ways-

1 An overarching plan that talks about the strategic aspects of managing OHS in an organisation

2 A construction or project safety plan that has general information on safety, identifies general hazards and talks about how to manage those general hazards

3 A hazard management plan that does a very detailed job of identifying hazards and goes to extreme lengths to talk about managing those hazards

4 Safe Working Procedures or Work Method Statements, preferably developed by Job Safety Analysis, are sometimes referred to as safety plans

5 Catastrophic Risk Management Plans for low probability-high consequence risk

6 Fire safety plans

7 Critical incident management plans

8 Mine safety management plans

9 Flight safety plans

10 Emergency response plans

11 Safety training plans

12 Project management plans

13 Change management plans

My guess is what you end up calling a Safety Management Plan depends on your purpose and this guides what should go into it.

My experience is that there is often an over-reliance on the writing of Safety Management Plans, if the workforce do not know about them and enact them they are not of much use. I once worked with an organisation where once construction safety plans were developed the standard practice was to put them in the project engineer’s files without discussion with the workforce. Reliance on procedural controls alone is often ineffective.

I have always believed that a Safety Management System that focuses on compliance with OHS legislation will always only go part way towards having good safety performance, but it seems this is a required starting point. Safety Management Plans should reflect that.

2 tips for developing Safety Management Plans are-

1 Keep it simple

2 Reality test it with the workforce

A lot of Safety Management Plans follow the “Just in case” and “Cover your arse” principles and ramble onto unwieldy lengths that it is unrealistic to expect anyone will actually read them, yet alone comply with them. Bring back the succinct paperwork I reckon.

On one contract role I was asked to review the company safety documentation as a pre-cursor to doing my work. There were about 70 pages of Fatal Risk Protocols and 30 pages of OHS Standards. A considerable amount of detailed work had gone into their preparation but I wondered if the people up the sharp end, where things really matter, ever read and applied them.

Busy people do not have the time to develop detailed documentation and busy people do not have the time to read it. If you feel it necessary to have detailed documentation for legal, insurance or other purposes there is room for succinct summaries of major points.

Practical advice on developing safety plans

1. Form a project team to develop the plan. Formal and informal influencers should be on the team
2. If a thorough OHS audit has not been carried out recently conduct one
3. Analyse past accident experience
4. Drive safety culture and safety change through a robust Safety Management System that is constantly monitored and reviewed and is targeted at the identified needs of the organisation (Refer to “What Makes a Safety Management System Fly”
5. Carry out a force-field analysis with a cross-section of stakeholders
6. Develop objectives / goals / mission /values
7. Define how to meet the requirements, develop targets, timelines, deliverables
8. Develop key performance indicators, these must be a mix of lead & lag indicators
9. Whatever you develop must be simple and succinct
10. Involve the stakeholders
11. Reality test your draft with the workforce
12. Develop a 1 year plan and review at that time
13. Regularly monitor success in the implementation of the plan
14. COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE in a way that inspires
15. Have huge but realistic goals
16. Do the simplest thing that will work
17. When initiating change remember “People support what they create” Initiating change is difficult at the best of times, if you do not involve those affected by the change in the change process it is unlikely to work.
18. Identify and separate customer needs from wants
19. Use face to face communication whenever possible
20. Use real world approaches not theory
21. Get some runs on the board quickly
22. Have high expectations and communicate them
23. Drive safety from the top of the organisation
24. Know your people
25. Be loyal
26. Question the status-quo
27. Do what gives you the biggest bang for your buck
28. Minimise the bureaucracy and bull-shit
29. Carefully define the scope of any project you take on
30. Passive countermeasures (That do not rely on action by the human being) are preferred to Active countermeasures

The 8 Steps of Strategic Planning

1 Articulate a mission-Why do we exist?, Whom do we serve?, What do we provide?

2 Articulate a vision-How do we define excellence?, What do we stand for?

What makes us distinct?

3 Analyse current situation and performance

4 Identify gaps between our vision and current situation and identify the critical issues

5 Set strategic priorities

6 Establish performance measures and goals

7 Develop 1 year action plans

8 Conduct evaluation and schedule progress checks

Tips to make your strategic plan a success

1. Carefully select members for the planning team
2. Educate people on the role of the plan
3. Involve the stakeholders
4. Get the information needed prior to developing the plan
5. Hold you strategy sessions away from the office
6. Allow sufficient time
7. Communicate your strategy
8. Monitor progress
9. Link the strategic plan to the budgeting process
10. Adopt simple, clear terminology
11. Set realistic time frames
12. Ask client’s what is missing
13. Revise the plan regularly

• Bio
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George Robotham

George was a Legend in the Safety World who passed away in Sept 2013 but left us with a great legacy

Latest posts by George Robotham (see all)

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• Critical Safety Reflection or thinking about stuff - August 28, 2025
• Quirky Things That Work When Trying To Help Others - March 26, 2025
• The Things You Need To Know About Health and Safety Leadership - September 8, 2024

I have worked in OHS for most of my working life, many years in the mining industry including over 10 years in a corporate OHS role with BHP. Since leaving the mining industry I have worked in a variety of safety roles with a variety of employers, large & small, in a variety of industries. I was associated with my first workplace fatality at age 21, the girl involved was young, intelligent, vivacious and friendly. Such a waste! I was the first on the scene and tried to comfort her and tend to her injuries. She said to me “George, please do not let me die” We put her on the aerial ambulance to Rockhampton base hospital where she died the next day. I do not mind telling you that knocked me around for awhile. Since then I have helped my employers cope with the aftermath of 12 fatalities and 2 other life-altering events. The section "Why do Occupational Health & Safety" provides further detail but in summary, poor safety is simply very expensive and also has a massive humanitarian cost. My qualifications include a certificate I.V. in Workplace Training and Assessment, a Diploma in Frontline Management, a Diploma in Training & Assessment Systems, a Bachelor of Education (Adult & Workplace Education) , a Grad. Cert. in Management of Organisational Change and a Graduate Diploma in Occupational Hazard Management. I am currently studying towards a Masters in Business Leadership. Up until recently I had been a Chartered Fellow of the Safety Institute of Australia for 10 years and a member for about 30 years. My interest is in non-traditional methods of driving organisational change in OHS and I have what I believe is a healthy dis-respect for many common approaches to OHS Management and OHS Training. I hold what I believe is a well-founded perception that many of the things safety people and management do in safety are “displacement activities” (Displacement activities are things we do, things we put a lot of energy into, but which when we examine them closely there is no valid reason for doing them). My managerial and leadership roles in OHS have exposed me to a range of management techniques that are relevant to Business Improvement. In particular I am a strong supporter of continuous improvement and quality management approaches to business. I believe leadership is the often forgotten key to excellence in most aspects of life. I hold the Australian Defence Medal and am a J.P.(Qualified). I have many fond memories of my time playing Rugby Union when I was a young bloke.