Health and safety
Project Manager – Jack of
all trades, master of most
T
he ever increasing demand
by clients as well as industry
for Project Managers to
have broader skillsets nowadays
places additional pressure on
these individuals to become
hands-on with all aspects of the
projects that they are committed
to. From high level analysis and
decisionsregarding technical design
specifications down to employee
relations and communications,
there is an extensive amount
of information for the Project
Manager to process on a daily
Raymond McDonald
44
basis. Interestingly though, the
subject of Occupational Health,
Safety and Environmental (OHSE)
Management can sometimes
be an under-developed and a
somewhat overlooked portion
of the organisation as a whole.
A growingtrend in improved
OHSE awareness and compliance
has been observed throughout
industry,andthe question remains:
can the rest of the project personnel
be expected to “buy in” to the
project’s OHSE commitment if
the Project Manager does not
indicate aproactive interest in it?
Therefore the Project Manager needs to
display an obvious and open focus to
the OHSE matters which arise throughout the course of the projects duration.
Unfortunately it has happened in the
past where the Project Manager reveals
a lack of interest in OHSE issues and
rather focuses on production and the
accompanying deadlines. This, in turn,
is whereproject personnel can lose faith
or interest in the pursuit of a successful OHSE system. The perception of the
OHSE systemis that itstarts at a higher
management level and filters through
the ranks to the rest of the organisation.
This means the Project Manager must
strive to keep abreast of any OHSE matters and assist high level management
with driving the organisations overarching OHSE Standards to all employees
and stakeholders who are involved with
the project.
This is where the term, “walk the talk”,
has become poignant. Practicing what
one preaches can often be more difficult than it seems, requiring a certain
amount of personal and professional
PM Africa Magazine — september 2014
commitment. On one hand, the Project
Manager must assure board members
and high level management of the extensive and successful OHSE Management
system where each person involved in
the project has a specific and important
part to play, while on the other, he/she
must play an active part to support and
physically drive the OHSE system on the
project site. This is the age old cliché of
production vs. safety; will the organisation practice and buy into a “real” OHSE
management system or layclaim that
they do and insteadpursue production
targets and deadlines with inadequate
measures to addressOHSE standards?
With this in mind, the Project Manager
needs to adopt the correct OHSE attitude and behaviours, implimenting best
practices into daily routine, not just on a
professional level but a personal level as
well. Safety does not go away after you’ve
clocked out from the workplace; you
can’t lock it away in your briefcase until
tomorrow morning again. Healthy OHSE
behaviours begin at home; they must be
an intrinsic part of an individual’s behaviours, in all day-to-day activities.
A minor change in the Project Managers
attitude can have a tremendous effect
on workplace OHSE figures and statistics,
such as adopting a proactive approach.
The reactive, “Crisis Management” style
which numerous organisations often
employ can lead to problems being
repeated over and over without being
correctly addressed. The weight of the
failing system then forces OHSE personnel to abandon proactive measures and
accept that the issues which are taking
place cannot be averted. Again, this is a
discipline which is cultivated from top
leadership down through the ranks of
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