Hi all

I have been involved in various capacities with the implimentation of 18001 and continuing surveillance audits (currently my org. uses BSI) for a good number of years, one continuing 'observation' (haven't received a minor NC as yet!) is the setting, communication and evidence thus for H&S 'objectives' throughout the organisation.

It tends to sit rather nicely in the company obejctives section of the management standard for stat. directors, senior and middle management but working down through the structure to the important people (operational colleagues at-the-coalface) tends to be through appraisals- team brifings and the such.

It's also difficult to continue (continual improvement) finding objectives year on year (AFR/ AIR, reporting, near miss etc etc.)

What if any interventions have you guys considered for the accredited standards you use?

In preparing my annual managament review at the close of the business year (September) I make "recommendations" for objectives & targets at the final section. Prior to this I engage with our Group HS&E Committee to get input and ideas. The objective cover performance (no LTA's, meet monitoring plans, close out actions, etc); 24/7 engagement with staff (basic first aid for all, infant CPR, wellbeing program, etc); various external audits, specific H&S support for critical areas of business (400KV 500MW HVDC interconnector bewteen Ireland and Wales), that sort of stuff. Once approved by the Executive and Board it forms the basis of the HS&E work programme for the year as a Microsoft Project. Quartely email go to Executive and staff.

This seems to satisfy our auditors.

Jonty

I 'd recommend setting objectives for occupational ill-health as well as safety. A lot of organisations forget the 'occupational' part of OHS, e.g. work related stress (I call it well-being!), plenty of objectives to set there if you've been brave enough to carry out a survey.

Another objective missed quite oftem is driving at work, other than fire this is one of the biggest risks in any company who has a motor fleet, or grey fleet. Obtain a copy of your driving stats from your motor vehicle insurer for the past 3 years and go from there.

I've started to set objectives now for when we transition from OHSAS 18001 to ISO 45001, particularly with regards to Leadership (should be fun).

Whilst OHSAS is a framework of "what good looks like" consider obtaining best practice guides for your industry and look at what gaps you've got and set objectives accordingly. Benchmarking works well too.

This is one area where the standard really is at fault.  It treats objectives and targets as if they are a single entity which they are not.  Targets are a subfunction of objectives and are designed to achieve a specific step to achieve an objective of the organisation.  Objectives should be set out in the overall policy document whilst targets will be documented and tracked individually.

Thus an objective may thus be "To minimise the level of adverse health effects arising from work activity to employees and non employees"

There are then many potential targets that could arise from thisagainst each objective.  Do I need to say that each target must be SMART if it is not the it is valueless as a target and you will not know if it has been achieved.  I found simple tables of  Os and Ts provide a rapid control aide memoire method.  Column headings would then be such as

Objective Targets Completion date Achieved Date Method of Measurement Responsible Person

Remember that objectives may well not change for many years but targets change at least annually.