Off-Site Safety Services

This policy serves as a formal declaration of your company's commitment, as an employer, to the health and safety of your workforce and the effectiveness of your health and safety program. In addition to affirming this commitment, the policy outlines the key objectives your program aims to achieve, which may include preventing workplace injuries, minimizing occupational risks, maintaining employee health, ensuring compliance with all applicable laws and regulations, and fostering continuous improvement in health and safety practices.

The policy also delineates the rights and responsibilities of the employer, as well as those of workers and supervisors. By clearly stating these expectations, the aim is to promote a shared accountability and active participation in maintaining a safe work environment.

This policy should be concise and straightforward, written in language that is easy for all employees to understand. It must be signed by the CEO or senior on-site manager, dated, and reviewed annually to ensure ongoing relevance and effectiveness.

Companies who participate in COR® through Construction Safety Nova Scotia benefit from:

• COR® certification is a prerequisite to bid on provincial government tenders.
• Eligibility for a WCB rebate (up to 10%) once COR obtained.
• Reduced workplace injuries and Time Loss Claims resulting in increased productivity & profitability.
• Your Nova Scotia COR® Safety Program certification is recognized in other provinces (for a maximum one year) through reciprocal agreements between members of the Canadian Federation of Construction Safety Associations.
• Safe and Healthy Workplace: COR-certified employers demonstrate leadership, commitment to continual improvement, and dedication to worker health and safety. Possessing a certificate of recognition demonstrates to your workers, your industry peers, and the public that you value a workplace that's safe and secure from injury, illness, and disease. This commitment translates into a safer and healthier workforce and work environment, which helps ensure your workers go home safely every day.
• Competitive Advantage: Having a certificate of recognition reflects your commitment to workplace health and safety, which may make it easier to hire and keep workers. It can also give you an advantage when it comes to work contracts. As clients become more socially conscious and discerning in choosing who to work with, it's important to make the most of every opportunity that will give your company a competitive edge.
• Financial Savings: Achieving a certificate of recognition can also have positive financial impacts. When you maintain a safe and healthy workplace with few worker injuries and shorter claims duration, your company’s experience rating will improve. This will eventually lead to a discount on your premiums, which can result in significant savings.

Though every workplace and every occupational health and safety (OHS) program are different, there are some key elements in common to all programs. Your program will include the following sections and will ensure compliance.

• Create health and safety policy
• When and who will conduct regular inspections
• Develop written safe work procedures
• Worker orientations
• Worker training
• Hold regular health and safety meetings
• Incident investigations
• Records and statistics maintenance

Initially and at least annually, employers need to evaluate the program to ensure that it is operating as intended, is effective in controlling identified hazards, and is making progress toward established safety and health goals and objectives. The scope and frequency of program evaluations will vary depending on the scope, complexity, and maturity of the program; and the types of hazards it must control.

ISN registration is becoming a requirement with many companies in Nova Scotia.

• Getting ISNetworld® Certification: Each account is different for each contractor, but there are similar themes that most accounts will have to complete to be certified. Our service is to provide completion of all these areas and even ongoing management of your account throughout the year.
• Setting Up Your Account: The first step in any account is getting the account open and setup. Once the request has been sent to them for the account, they will contact you within 24 hours to pay for your membership for ISNetworld®. Once you have paid your membership to them you will receive your login within 24 hours. Next, you will create us as a user in your account for us to begin work within your account.
• Questionnaires: The questionnaires or as ISNetworld® calls them “MSQ®” can be very extensive and in depth. Your clients may require specific responses and documentation to back up those responses. You may have to go through over 1000+ questions to complete this section of your account, but there may be gaps in what your client is expecting and what you have provided.
  From the start of our relationship we are learning about your specific business and how you work. Next, we take all this information and work through the questionnaires on your behalf. There may be items we have to work with you on for additional information to make sure your business is represented accurately. Then we review any gaps that may have been found. We will review them with you and help provide any support documentation you may need for implementing these requirements. Getting the highest possible score based on your work history is our guarantee.
• Safety Programs / RAVS®: A common area contractors need some help in is with their safety programs. ISNetworld® has a process called “Review and Verification Services” also known as RAVS®. A part of this is where they review your company’s safety programs to make sure they are compliant with client requirements and industry requirements.
  As a contractor you most likely have some sort of safety program in place, but it most likely may not be up to par with what ISNetworld® is wanting to meet their standards.
• Insurance Requirements: Insurance is very important especially to your client. This section of your account can cause the most trouble for you as you may have everything else completed, but if your insurance is expired, missing information, or your insurance limits are not high enough it can pull down your grade with your client.
• Ongoing Management: When your account is fully completed, reviewed, and approved this doesn’t mean you are done. ISNetworld® has constant updates to your account at minimum every 3 months you will have new information and data that needs to be entered. This doesn’t include if you begin to add additional clients to your account that you work with. Each client has their own set of requirements that need to be met and previous information may not be enough for that client.

Review available past audits and their corrective action recommendations. Inform relevant areas, departments, or worksites to prepare necessary documents ahead of an audit.

Most audits can be broken down into these safety audit areas:

• Employee Knowledge
• Written Program Review
• Program Administration
• Record & Document Review
• Equipment and Material
• General Area Walk-Through

A Safety Audit is a critical and structured examination that assesses and scrutinizes an organization’s safety protocols, identifying potential hazards and ensuring adherence to established safety standards and regulations. This essential process, pivotal in fostering a secure and compliant working environment, is integral for organizations aiming to uphold the well-being of their workforce and cultivate a culture centered around safety awareness and responsibility.

• Review of Findings of the Safety Audit: After all documents, written programs, procedures, work practices, and equipment have been inspected, our team of auditors will formulate a concise report that details all areas of the program.
• Recommendations from the Safety Audit: Collaborate with your organization to develop recommendations for improvements or updates to any item.
• Corrective Actions from the Safety Audit: Develop a corrective action plan in collaboration with managers.
• Publish the Safety Audit Results: It is essential everyone knows the basic findings and recommendations from the audit. Safety is everyone’s concern- not just managers and supervisors.

Employee-selected safety representative responsibilities:

• Identify and Report Hazards: The Health and Safety Representative (HSR) works with workers to identify potential health and safety hazards in the workplace.
• Communicate with Management: The HSR brings worker concerns and reports about hazards to the attention of management.
• Participate in Inspections and Investigations: The HSR may participate in regular inspections and investigate incidents.
• Make Recommendations: The HSR can make recommendations to the employer to address health and safety issues.
• Encourage Reporting: The HSR encourages workers to report hazards and concerns to their supervisor.
• Advocate for Worker Safety: The HSR serves as an advocate for worker safety and well-being.

An Emergency Response Plan (ERP) is a strategic framework designed to prepare for, respond to, and recover from emergencies, ensuring safety and effective communication.

Key Components of an Emergency Response Plan:

• Hazard Assessment: Begin by conducting a thorough assessment to identify potential hazards that could impact your organization, such as natural disasters, fires, or security threats. Understanding these risks is crucial for effective planning.
• Identify Potential Emergencies: After assessing hazards, specify the types of emergencies that could arise. This helps in tailoring the response plan to address specific scenarios.
• Establish Communication Protocols: Develop clear communication strategies to ensure that all personnel are informed during an emergency. This includes identifying key contacts, such as first responders and essential personnel, and establishing methods for disseminating information.
• Assign Roles and Responsibilities: Clearly define roles for team members during an emergency. Assign tasks to ensure that everyone knows their responsibilities, which can enhance the efficiency of the response.
• Assess Available Resources: Evaluate the resources available for emergency response, including personnel, equipment, and facilities. This assessment will help in planning effective response actions.
• Training and Drills: Implement regular training sessions and drills to prepare staff for emergencies. This practice helps ensure that everyone is familiar with the ERP and can act quickly and effectively when needed.
• Review and Update the Plan: Regularly review and update the emergency response plan to reflect changes in the organization, new threats, or lessons learned from drills and actual emergencies.

By following these steps, organizations can create a comprehensive Emergency Response Plan that enhances safety and preparedness in the face of potential emergencies.

The basic steps in conducting a job safety analysis are:

• Select the job to be analyzed
• Break the job down into a sequence of steps
• Identify potential hazards
• Determine preventive measures to control these hazards
• Communicate the results

Factors to be considered in setting a priority for the analysis of jobs include:

• Incident Frequency and Severity: jobs where incidents occur frequently or where they occur infrequently but result in serious injuries.
• Potential for Severe Injuries or Illnesses: the consequences of an incident, hazardous condition, or exposure to harmful products are potentially severe.
• Newly Established Jobs: due to lack of experience in these jobs, hazards may not be evident or anticipated.
• Modified Jobs: new hazards may be associated with changes in job procedures.
• Infrequently Performed Jobs: workers may be at greater risk when undertaking non-routine jobs, and a JSA provides a means of reviewing hazards.

Safe work practices describe methods to perform tasks with minimal risk to people, equipment, materials, environment, and processes.

Safe work practices should be based on job safety analysis (JSA) or hazard risk assessment (HRA) and tailored to common activities in the company's work sector.

All safe work practices should be kept in a location central to the work being performed and readily available to the workforce. Some safe work practices will require specific job procedures, which clearly set out in a chronological order each step in a process.

Safe job procedures are outlined steps that guide workers through tasks chronologically to minimize risks and potential exposure.

The company's "Worker Orientation" program should include safe work procedures. All workers must know these procedures are established, documented, and mandatory.

A return-to-work program is a plan that helps a worker who has been injured on the job come back to work as soon as it is safe to do so. Safe, healthy work can often be part of recovery from a workplace injury and is often part of a return-to-work program.

• Create a Return-to-Work policy. Your return-to-work policy is a statement, in writing, that clearly outlines how management, unions or worker representatives, and workers are committed to their responsibilities under the program. It should be signed by the most senior person in your organization.
• Return-to-work procedures standardize a workplace’s return-to-work approach by outlining clear and easy-to follow steps for helping a worker get back to their job as soon as it is safe to do so.
• Plan transitional work. When injury happens, the goal is to get the worker back to the way they were before injury as quickly and safely as possible. The longer a worker is off work, the less likely they are to return.