The Safety Generalist

AUDITS, ANALYSIS, AND RISK ASSESSMENTS
Despite W. Edward Deming’s admonishment to end dependence on audits, the safety community remains heavily invested in auditing sites to ensure that they comply with all safety regulations. This “catch and blame” philosophy is still very much of the safety culture and the Safety Generalist is typically responsible for conducting detailed safety audits, job hazard analysis, and risk assessments.

EXPOSURE MONITORING
The marriage of environmental concerns to health risks and safety applications often tasks the Safety Generalist with completing annual screenings to evaluate worker exposure to potentially hazardous materials. The Safety Generalist is expected to interpret the data to determine the appropriate actions the organization must undertake to limit worker exposure to hazards.

INJURY INVESTIGATION
Most Safety Generalists are expected to conduct injury investigations and to report their findings to those in operations management. Injury investigation may be completed by the Safety Generalist alone or as part of a team. The Safety Generalist will typically conduct interviews with injured employees, witnesses to the accident, and with supervisors who manage and control the operation, and then prepare a safety report that presents the findings to management, with recommendations that can ensure situations with similar injuries do not recur.

LEAD THE SAFETY COMMITTEE
Even small manufacturers usually have some sort of a safety committee that often consists of a group of hourly and salaried employees who have shown a keen interest in employee safety. The Safety Generalist is usually assigned to be the leader of this committee and is responsible for preparing agendas, keeping minutes, and facilitating the meetings.

EMERGENCY RESPONSE AND EVACUATION
Ensuring that fire suppression systems are operational and that evacuation routes are clearly marked and unobstructed are tasks usually assigned to the Safety Generalist. Depending on the size and scale of the operation, improper planning can transform this important job into a logistical nightmare as fire extinguisher checks, fire marshal inspections, fire drills and a host of other related tasks can quickly eclipse other duties that the Safety Generalist is expected to complete.

HAZARD MANAGEMENT
One of the primary duties of the Safety Generalist is hazard management, which is the practice of identifying, containing, and managing the correction of hazards as part of an overall safety management system that can require the Safety Generalist to cooperate with and influence a great many other functions to get the required tasks completed through maintenance, quality and continuous improvement, human resources and other departments.

OTHER DUTIES AS DIRECTED
Most job descriptions finish with the gem “other duties as directed”, a catch-all phrase that is never truer than when it is applied to the job of the safety professional. So many diverse responsibilities can get transferred to the Safety Generalist role that a comprehensive list of tasks required of this profile can often be difficult to compile.

Of course there are more duties that a Safety Generalist might be expected to perform. In fact, the job descriptions of Safety Generalist are almost as varied as the manufacturers who employ them. One thing is for sure, however: The most successful Safety Generalists are employed by manufacturers who believe that the safety of the workforce is the responsibility of those in operations, and the Safety Generalist  is there to help them to accomplish this.