Safety Management System Gap Analysis

James Roughton and Nathan Crutchfield (in Safety Culture: An Innovative Leadership Approach) list key steps to maintaining a strong safety and health culture in your organization. The key steps include:

• Build leadership team
• Involve employees
• Identify hazards, assess situations
• Prevent hazards, control for hazards
• Provide information and training
• Evaluate program effectiveness
• Sustain a safety culture

Any gaps between the steps listed above can weaken an organization’s safety and health culture. For example, a lack of training can lead to systems where no one knows what to do.

What is the tool: A way to identify and address gaps in an organization’s safety management system

When to use the tool: To troubleshoot an organization’s safety and health management system to figure out why something is happening (or not happening)

How to use the tool: The following chart illustrates likely results when key elements are missed. The chart serves as a sample gap analysis graphic, and gives you an opportunity to think about your nonprofit’s safety management system in relation to the key elements outlined. Read down the “Results” column along the right side of the chart. Circle any of the icons that resonate with a systems challenge your organization may be experiencing or has experienced in the past. Work backwards to identify any potential gaps in your organization’s safety management system. Then, make a plan to address identified gap(s). You can facilitate this exercise with your safety committee, at a safety meeting, or board meeting.