As famously stated by author Joy Gumz: “Operations keeps the lights on, strategy provides a light at the end of the tunnel, but project management is the train engine that moves the organization forward.”
While that seems pretty logical and relatively simple, not everything is as simple as it looks. To highlight this, studies show that only 58% of business leaders claim to fully understand the value and applicability of project management. Translation: that leaves room for opportunity.
The Added Layer of Complexity in Safety Projects
From an end-goal perspective, most objectives of safety projects are similar to those in other aspects of business: delivering it on time, staying on budget and managing customer expectations, whether internal or external.
However, what makes safety projects that much more challenging is ensuring that worker safety will always be priority number one. Frankly speaking, that is no easy feat.
Must-Do’s for Safety Managers to Effectively Meet their Objectives
There are some key practices and skills that effective safety project managers carry out and possess to help them be successful at what they do.
These include:
- Fostering and strengthening a culture of safety.
- Getting buy-in from stakeholders and keeping them engaged from the project planning phase to completion.
- Delivering “effective execution through to monitoring and controlling and closing.”
- Providing robust reporting.
On top of these, they also rely on proven tools to do so. This not only includes safety management software solutions, but other types of tools as well (e.g. checklists, templates etc.).
The Project Management Audit Checklist – Brought to You
Get a head start by downloading the Project Management Audit Checklist: Coming in Safely, Under Budget and Ahead of Schedule, and get ready to learn:
- What documents and actions are required to check off all the management leadership, pre-task plans, education and communication requirements (e.g. plan and PTPs completion, OSHA 10- and 30-hour compliance verification and bulletins issued).
- How best to track safety inspections that are scheduled in regular intervals (e.g. monthly, weekly, daily and timely closure of open issues).
- How to effectively and thoroughly track incident management tasks (e.g. incident reporting, investigation completion, root cause identification).
To view every action item, click here to access your checklist!
