Responsibilities Of Safety Supervisors & Departmental Managers

Organizing and managing a corporate workforce is an endeavor that requires focus, strategic planning, and oversight from both supervisors and departmental managers. Safety supervisors and departmental managers have been tasked with essential responsibilities to ensure the organization’s employees are taken care of properly while maintaining a safe working environment. Understanding what these duties entail is essential to best guide your staff toward excellence. In this blog post, we will discuss the core responsibilities safety supervisors and departmental managers must adhere to and how they can effectively manage their team to meet company goals while keeping everyone safe on the job site.

Responsibilities Of Departmental Managers

The principal departmental managers may report to the Site Manager, Managing Director, or Chief Executive. In particular, they:

• Are responsible and accountable for the health and safety performance of their department; 
• Contact each supervisor frequently (daily) to monitor the health and safety standards in the department; 
• Hold departmental health and safety meetings for supervisors and employee representatives at least once a month; 
• Ensure that any machinery, equipment, or vehicles used within the department are maintained, correctly guarded, and meet agreed health and safety standards. The Departmental Manager must keep copies of records of all maintenance, statutory, and insurance inspections;
• Ensure that all fire and other emergency equipment is maintained correctly regularly with all faults rectified promptly and that all departmental staff are aware of fire and emergency procedures; 
• Ensure that there is an adequate first-aid cover on all shifts and all first-aid boxes are adequately stocked; 
• Ensure that a safe system of work procedures is in place for all jobs and that copies of all procedures are submitted to the site Managing Director for approval; 
• Review all job procedures regularly and require each supervisor to check that the procedures are being used correctly; 
• Approve and review, annually, all departmental health and safety risk assessments, rules, and procedures; maintain strict enforcement and develop plans to ensure employee instruction and re-instruction; 
• Ensure that all health and safety documents (such as the organization’s health and safety manual, risk assessments, rules, and procedures) are easily accessible to all departmental staff; 
• Establish acceptable housekeeping standards, define specific areas of responsibility, and assign areas to supervisors; make a weekly spot check across the department, hold a formal inspection with supervisors at least monthly and submit written reports of the inspections to the health and safety adviser with deadlines for any required actions; 
• Authorize purchases of tools and equipment necessary to attain compliance with the organization’s specifications and relevant statutory regulations; 
• Develop a training plan that includes specific job instructions for new or transferred employees and follow up on the training by supervisors. The Departmental Manager must keep copies of records of all training; 
• Review the health and safety performance of their department each quarter and submit a report to the Managing Director/Chief Executive; 
• Personally investigate all lost workday cases and dangerous occurrences and report to the Managing Director/Chief Executive. Progress any required corrective action; 
• Adopt standards for assigning PPE to employees, insist on strict enforcement, and make spot field checks to determine compliance; 
• Evaluate the health and safety performances of supervisors; 
• develop in each supervisor strong health and safety attitudes and a clear understanding of their specific duties and responsibilities; 
• Instill, by action, example, and training, positive health and safety culture among all departmental staff;
• Instruct supervisors in site procedures for the care and treatment of sick or injured employees; 
• Ensure that the names of any absentees, written warnings, and all accident reports are submitted to the Human Resources Manager.

Responsibilities Of Safety Supervisors

The supervisors are responsible for and report to their Departmental Manager. In particular, they:

• Are responsible and accountable for their team’s health and safety performance; 
• Conduct informal health and safety meetings with their employees at least monthly; 
• Enforce all safe systems of work procedures that the Departmental Manager has issued; 
• Report to the Departmental Manager any weaknesses in the safe system of work procedures or any actions taken to revise such procedures. These weaknesses may be revealed by either health and safety risk assessments or observations; 
• Report any jobs that are not covered by safe systems of work procedures to the Departmental Manager; 
• Review any unsafe acts and conditions and either eliminate them or report them to the Departmental Manager; 
• Instruct employees in relevant health and safety rules, make records of this instruction and enforce all health and safety rules and procedures; 
• Make daily inspections of assigned work areas and take immediate steps to correct any unsafe or unsatisfactory conditions, report to the Departmental Manager those conditions that cannot be immediately corrected and instruct employees on housekeeping standards; 
• Instruct employees that tools/equipment are to be inspected before each use and make spot checks of tools ’ /equipment’s condition; 
• Instruct each new employee personally on job health and safety requirements in assigned work areas; 
• Provide on-the-job instruction on the safe and efficient performance of assigned jobs for all employees in the work area; 
• Report any apparent employee health problems to the Departmental Manager; 
• Enforce PPE requirements; make spot checks to determine that protective equipment is being used and periodically appraise the condition of the equipment. Record any infringements of the PPE policy; 
• In the case of a serious injury, ensure that the injured employee receives prompt medical attention, isolate the area and the equipment as necessary, and immediately report the incident to the Departmental Manager. In case of a dangerous occurrence, the Supervisor should take immediate steps to correct any unsafe condition and, if necessary, isolate the area and the equipment. As soon as possible, details of the incident and any action taken should be reported to the Departmental Manager; 
• Investigate all accidents, serious incidents, and cases of ill health involving employees in assigned work areas. Immediately after an accident, complete the accident report form and submit it to the Departmental Manager for onward submission to the health and safety adviser. A preliminary investigation report and any recommendations for preventing a recurrence should be included on the accident report form; 
• Check for any changes in operating practices, procedures, and other conditions at the start of each shift/day and before relieving the ‘ on duty ’ Supervisor (if applicable). A note should be made of any health and safety-related incidents that have occurred since their last working period; 
• Make a quick check to determine any absentees at the start of each shift/day. Report any absentees to the Departmental Manager; 
• Make daily spot checks and take necessary corrective action regarding housekeeping, unsafe acts or practices, unsafe conditions, job procedures, and adherence to health and safety rules; 
• Attend all scheduled and assigned health and safety training meetings; 
• Act on all employee health and safety complaints and suggestions; 
• In their assigned area, maintain health and safety signs and notice boards in a clean and legible condition.

Responsibilities Of Employees and Agency Workers 

• Are responsible for their health and safety; 
• Ensure that their actions will not jeopardize the safety or health of other employees; 
• Obey any safety rules, particularly regarding the use of PPE or other safety equipment; 
• Learn and follow the operating procedures and health and safety rules and procedures for the safe performance of the assigned job; 
• Must correct, or report to their Supervisor, any observed unsafe practices and conditions; 
• Maintain a healthy and safe place to work and cooperate with managers in the implementation of health and safety matters; 
• Make suggestions to improve any aspect of health and safety; 
• Maintain an active interest in health and safety; 
• Follow the established procedures if accidents occur by reporting any accident to the Supervisor; 
• Report any absence from the company caused by illness or an accident