Why Kenyan Occupational Health & Safety Managers should take lifestyle audit (or is it responsibilities audit?) come 2016

Author Reference

Benard, L. (2015): CHRISTMAS: Why Kenyan Occupational Health & Safety Managers should take lifestyle audit (or is it responsibilities audit?)  come 2016. Intel Fire Group of Companies Blog. Nairobi, Kenya.

Occupational health and safety managers in Kenya have specific duties and a responsibility bestowed upon them by their respective companies and in particular is to ensure that the statutory regulations are complied with to ascertain the safety of employers and their employees. Crystal foundation of queen’s language defines the lifestyle audit as a term used by forensic auditors and management in companies to describe the tests that are performed to determine if the lifestyle of an employee is commensurate with their known duties. On the other hand, responsibilities audit advocates for a formal review of the occupational health and safety manager’s responsibilities in tandem with the company’s specified performance standards. So is it lifestyle or responsibility audit? It is the latter definitely!! So coming 2016 as an occupational safety and health manager undertaking responsibilities audit should be your priority and what this audit looks into are varied but not limited to the following:

1. Responsibility to ensure company undertake statutory trainings

Every company in Kenya is required to undertake safety trainings to its employees with the sole objective of ensuring they are prepared for safety emergencies within the workplace. The occupational safety and health act (OSHA) revised in 2010 to mirror the Kenya’s new constitution has subsidiary legislation which includes: the factories (first aid) order which was a general notice (G.N.) 974/1951 and later after independence a Legal Notice (L.N.) 666/1963 and much later the first aid rules legal notice 160/1977 which requires formation and training of first aid teams at workplaces in its section 5; Then there is the fire risks reduction rules legal notice no.59 of 2007 which advocates for formation and training of fire marshals within the workplace in section 20 and 21 respectively; And finally the health and safety committee rules which is outlined by legal notice 31 of 2004, and basically requires the formation of health and safety committees as per its section 4 and their training in section 9 part (C).

Looks like you have done all that and this article sounds rhetoric but before you make a conclusion, these are statutory trainings which mean they are mandatory requirements for your company. As an astute occupational health and safety manager, on your responsibilities audit you have just found out that you did not only outdo your statutory training responsibilities but you also did organize motivational and social impact trainings to your employees or, you did not?

2. Responsibility to ensure company undertakes statutory safety audits.

Section 13 of the Kenya OSHA Act 2007 revised in 2010 and section 36 of the fire risks reduction rules legal notice no. 59 of 2007 requires every company to cause the health & safety and fire safety audit respectively to their workplaces. The safety auditors must be registered with the Directorate of Occupational Safety and Health Services (DOSHS) for the respective safety audit requirements. As your duty as the safety adviser of the company, in 2015 you ensured that the company undertook these safety audits and their recommendations thereafter implemented with a view of improving the workplace safety environment. Most companies have made huge mistakes by commissioning these safety audits only to ensure they comply with the laws of the land rather than the main objective being the ultimate goal of employees’ workplace safety but again in 2015 you balanced the resources against the safety requirements so well.

The fact that you saved company thousands of shillings in safety auditor fees was not recognized and even the employee of the year award going to salesmen with the highest sales is a further fact that points to your fears of non-recognition of your efforts. The year 2016 therefore should be your turn-around, and do things differently. Start with the safety audit role and re-invent the wheel by signing completely different audit team and new faces. If your company has a policy on these issues as may be thinking, then read the policies and implement them categorically to the company’s strategic advantage.

3. Responsibility to ensure company undertakes environmental audits.

The Environmental Management and Coordination Act (EMCA) legal notice no. 8 of 1999 requires every company to undertake Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for an initial development project and an annual Environmental Audit (EA) subsequently for the project and the report submitted to the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) established under the same act. Therefore as the safety representative of the company it must be understood that you have a great responsibility as the chief adviser to your boss and the stakeholders on issues related to environmental safety and audits. The fact that you have done the audits is not in doubt but the question would be, have you created awareness amongst your colleagues on environmental safety and are the audit recommendations implemented?

It is also prudent when undertaking these audits to have a policy on the NEMA registered auditor who is given the contract. A company giving the same auditor the same contract for more than three (3) years beats the logic of familiarity and conflicts of interest on the part of the auditor. The view is that once the auditor undertakes the first audit, familiarity begins and in the next audit he or she will be justifying and confirming their previous recommendations. After three years it is believed that the environmental auditor can audit and compile your audit report without necessarily visiting the site and being objective. But this is not what you have been doing in the last years as your record sound successful for the year 2015. FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Does retaining the same safety auditor for a decade beats the logic of familiarity & conflict of interest?

4. Responsibility to ensure renewal company safety-based licenses

Safety responsibility of the company comes with requirement to comply with certain laws and regulations of which certificate of compliance is awarded and in most instances renewable every year to ensure that the company undertakes continuous improvement of its safety and environmental activities. As the safety representative of the company, it is therefore paramount that you ensure that the following licenses are reviewed and renewed for the year 2016: (1) Fire clearance certificate which is a requirement of the respective county government in which your company is situated and will attract a fee as stipulated by the county laws. This clearance is sort at the county fire station and its main objective is to ensure that your company comply with the county government regulations on fire safety which includes fire equipment installation and provision of adequate water supply apart from the premises being approved for the activity it is undertaking.

(2) The DOSHS certificate of registration which is an annual certification of your workplace in compliance with the regulations of occupational health and safety as stipulated by the ministry of labour department. This certificate is only awarded once you have complied with the preconditions which include the annual safety audits and filing of self-assessment report which basically outlines the status of the workplace in terms of safety of employees as reported by your company as the proponent. Other considerations would include the general register which is reviewed every year and a report submitted. At this point you are almost fully informed of the Kenyan safety regulations and the environmental requirements for your company which you must have achieved in 2015 and reflecting on as you reward yourself with a long-overdue holiday.

5. Responsibility to be at peace with everyone at the workplace.

Finally, as the late Myles Monroe would put it, be at peace with everyone and more so yourself to gain prosperity in life. Remember, your life and your world does not stop once you set foot at the company gate wearing the tag safety manager, officer, EHS, HSSE plus the many other titles this position is referred to. As the safety manager therefore the responsibility of motivating your colleagues to boost their psychosocial well-being at the workplace lies in your hands. Expounding on your personal psychological and social soundness in many cases definitely determines how successful you are at implementing safety policies. It must be noted that occupational safety management is a social science that deals with people management and the safety manager is the lead manager in this line of management therefore must be a “peoples” person all round, and if not  failure is eminent. This is more reason why most companies appoint their human resource managers as safety managers and succeed well after learning a few ropes from articles like this one.

In conclusion, it must be noted that Kenya is undergoing transformation and corruption has taken a major stage with various entities in the private sector declaring their wealth just to show how much transparent they are. This in essence is commendable and especially when doing it is not for public relations but an in-built policy requirement within the workplace to keep check on the integrity of all employers and employees. With respect to safety managers, should a company choose to order a life style audit on you then the writing on the wall is that your life has improved beyond your means as no company can order that kind of audit to improve your life, at least not one the author can mention. Safety managers should therefore at the end of every year cause a responsibility audit that is detailed on their broad responsibilities as a pre-condition to check for a confirmation whether they achieved their mark for the year. Of course your company has policies in place to confirm your achievements but as an individual, you should also document the achievement in your own way as a true reflection of your endeavors as the company by all standards is always generalized the achievements to a department and not an individual and most important of all take note that SAFETY BEGINS WITH TEAM WORK.

The writer is a PhD Generalist in Public Safety Service Delivery