Safety Update

Safety Update: COR Maintenance Audit is not the ONLY way!

"Internal" audits, for the most part, have been the requirement for maintaining a company's COR during the years between External Certification Audits in Alberta. But few are aware that there are other options available to qualifying companies such as the Safety Awareness Survey Scorecard (SASS).

In 2008, the Safety Awareness Survey Scorecard (SASS) was first made available as a COR maintenance option. This option spans over both maintenance years making it less time consuming and a more cost effective alternative to an audit. The SASS was approved by all Certifying Partners in December of 2007. It is becoming more widely used as a COR maintenance option and the number of companies making use of the SASS is expected to increase in 2009.

An organization needs to meet the following criteria to qualify for this maintenance option:

• The employer's current COR must be in good standing and have been active for a minimum of four (4) consecutive years.
• The employer must have achieved a minimum overall score of 90% on their last external recertification audit.
• Safety Surveys can only be used by large (more than 10 employees) employers in the regular COR program.

Though approved by all the Certifying Partners, the SASS has not been implemented by all and currently the following provide this alternative to their members:

• Alberta Association of Safety Partnerships (AASP)
• Alberta Forest Products Association (AFPA)
• Manufacturer's Health and Safety association (MHSA)

The SASS is an internet based survey that is completed by 40% of a company's employees to measure the organization's Health & Safety Program. The results are aggregated by an independent 3rd party, ensuring the anonymity of the individual responses and the company then creates a 2 year action planned based on the results of the survey.

The use of surveys is not uncommon to identify gaps and areas for improvement in compliance/business programs and processes, but the SASS is the first time surveys are being used to measure Health & Safety programs. According to Larry Johnson, HSE E&I Specialist at Enerflex Systems Ltd : "The SASS is a cheaper and less disruptive COR maintenance option, providing us with leading indicators based on the perception of our employees. Perception is Reality! - and by better understanding how our employees perceive 'safety on the job', the better it allows us to adjust our programs accordingly."

Though the survey response requirement of 40% seems high it is not difficult to obtain and users witness to this effect. "HBC was able to survey more than 2000 The Bay, Zellers and Home Outfitters employees at more than 50 stores across Western Canada with virtually no interruption of day-to-day business activities." Said Kiran Pande Health & Safety Manager HBC, Western Canada.

Some organization like Kudu Industries Inc. have ".found the SASS to highlight areas for improvement that may otherwise have been overlooked, and the ease of deployment has also allowed us to use it internationally across all our site, to measure employees' honest, anonymous feedback." (Billy McCrae, Heath & Safety Manager, Kudu Industries Inc.)

For more information on the SASS, benefits and a cost analysis compared to regular internal audit please click here.

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