Balanced Safety Scorecard for Saudi Schools - Thesis Example

Approach to Design Designing of a Balanced Score Card (BSC) requires a through understanding of the structure of the organization, processes and hierarchy of people. In our case of Saudi schools, after understanding this I have divided the BSC framework in 5 different perspectives named as P1 to P5. The perspectives are based on the following broad classification Leadership’s Initiatives and approach to safety Approach towards training and learning of safety Policies, procedures and operational rules for safety Personal safety culture Safety performance Each of this Perspective needs to be understood and then factors underlying each one should be defined and elaborated. We shall see them one by one. P1: SAFETY MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP For incorporating any new initiative it is important that the Management and the top bosses are with it. Unless they decide to implement the program, process or initiative properly no new thing can go through. Hence while designing a Safety BSC it is important to evaluate the attitude of the Management. Management is more generic term; it shall include the top management authority of the school, Cleaners, maintenance staff, administrative staff and the teachers as well. This is because safety is universal to all human beings and its learning and knowledge should not be imparted based on degree of seniority or status. Once the BSC is implemented by looking at this perspective score one can say that how successful the management is in taking care of health and safety of its pupils in schools and what are the areas of improvement for the managers. Factors under this perspective will basically include factors which indicate the dedication of management to safety, involvement of employees in the safety program and their awareness level. Sometimes the program is implemented from up above but till it reaches at the base level staff the effectiveness and efficiency decreases drastically. Hence it is important also to see how the supervisors are carrying out their duty of communication and support to its subordinates. Hence perceived supervisor competence is a factor to be considered. There has to be some incentive shown to people for being a party to safety culture. This need not be cash or kind, but a simple realization from supervisors that this is a good thing to do for overall benefit of the organization and yourself. A pat in back or expression of gratitude by management in meetings will encourage employees to practice safe work environment rules. P1 - F1: Management commitment to safety The title may be self explanatory but the question might arise that why is it necessary. The management would always want to follow best health and safety standards and be up to date in processes to safe guard everybody’s interest. But this is important factor because management team keeps on changing, the environment around them and school also keeps on changing. They need to keep themselves up to date all the time. Hence they need to be committed to health and safety of the school. Item 1: No. of Junior / admin Staff directly involved/responsible for Safety management Item 2: No. of Senior management directly involved/responsible for Safety management Item 3: Whether all staff member have taken the ‘Health and Safety’ self learning module and passed with minimum 70% marks P1 - F2: Safety communication First aid kits, fire extinguishers, fire exits, defibrillators etc might be available at the school campus but does everyone know about it? There might be rules to be followed while opening and closing a science laboratory or while switching on the heater/cooler for the auditorium, are they being followed? Communicating the rules, regulations, processes and locations of important things is necessary and inevitable. Hence this factor needs to be measured to ensure that everyone who is responsible for other pupils knows them. Communication to pupils in general is also important and there should one communication program or ‘health and safety’ drill to ensure that they also know the fire exits, first aid kits, whom to call In case of emergency etc. Item1: How many staff member has attended each bi monthly training schedule for ‘health and safety’ communication? Item2: How many staff passed the 10 question test after the bi monthly training by answering at least 6 questions right? Item3: Each class should have a team leader appointed for Health and safety. He/She shall be responsible for getting trained about basics and communicate the same to his/her class once in 2-3 months. This schedule will be followed by a small and simple test which will be a parameter to quantify F2. P1 - F3: Employee involvement in safety The whole plan or the rule book to be followed for health and safety must not be prepared in seclusion by top management team. Effort should be made to involve staff members and teachers at every level of its development so that employees are aware and alert all the time regarding safety. There should be a committee responsible for safety and they should take suggestions and feedback from any other staff member regularly. With necessary approvals the committee themselves should be allowed to formulate the communication material, processes and the whole program. Item1: % of clerk grade staff members involved in safety management out of total Item2: % of administrative staff members involved in safety management out of total Item3: % of teaching staff members involved in safety management out of total P1 - F4: Perceived supervisor competence Supervisors who are mainly responsible for flawless execution of the plan and ensuring safety need to be competent to do it. One should not take this responsibility lightly. Hence a small survey can be carried out 6 monthly to check what the perceived competence of the supervisor is. For this a survey consisting of questions regarding the supervisor can be carried out with all staff members and asked them to rate between 1 to 5 the performance of their respective supervisor. This score can then be corporated in the balanced score card. Item1: Questionnaire How well educated is your supervisor when it comes to health and safety? 1-2-3-4-5 Is your supervisor available to you when you need him? 1-2-3-4-5 Are you satisfied with the bi monthly meeting for basic training provided by your supervisor? 1-2-3-4-5 P1 - F5: Safety practice incentives Being a part of the core management or planning team, or becoming a safety team leader for the class voluntarily requires a huge amount of time investment and commitment. For this the safety practice should be incentivized. This incentive need not be money or any other gift but a small tap in the back by senior person is also good. There can be a point system devised and at the end of year, a small award can be given away to best staff member or best student for extraordinary service to school’s safety. Apart from this, while communicating what is heath and safety and training the pupils and staff members, the incentives of doing it should be explained. The incentive of working in a safe environment, being hazard free school and being safe from accidents are few of the intangible incentives which one gets by following safety practices. Item1: % of staff members who have attended all the safety committee meetings and done all training schedules on time Item2: % of team leader students whose class has done exceedingly well in the 10 question test after the training on safety every 6 months P2: SAFETY LEARNING AND TRANING If you want to teach, first you must learn. The staff members and employees of the school have to undergo an extensive training regarding health and safety. They in turn will teach the lower level staff with relevant data pertaining to their role in school or in the safety management team. For example how to use a defibrillator is a work of an expert and need not be taught to a peon. But the peon needs to know how to use a fire extinguisher and how to use fire drill to lead the children to safe place when in danger. So a comprehensive learning and selective training is required for things to percolate down to all the pupils. P2 - F1: Safety training and seminars Training is a prerequisite to implement a strong safety strategy in school. Without training no body will be equipped to do any good in case of an accident or emergency. A training module must be devised by the learned management team and the material should be made available for all staff members and pupils. Bi monthly or six monthly training seminars should be held. One In two to three years, the school should host a health and safety fair in order to create more awareness among other schools and share the safety management initiatives taken by them. Training should be at three levels. Level 1 where the top team gets trained on all the aspects of health and safety including legal aspects. Level 2 where they train the employees of the school based on the specific role they are volunteering for. And level 3 where the student team leader communicate crisp and tiny informative module to rest of the pupils Item1: No. of seminars arranged as compared to benchmark in one school calendar Item2: Take small tests of staff members and pupils to see how much they have grasped And how successful was the training seminar Item3: Keep a track of accidents and hazards and see its increase or decrease after starting the training schedules every two or six months. P2 – F2: Safety promotional strategies One has to constantly keep in mind that this BSC is devised for a school. This is not a corporate or a big business where people come to work. This is a place where students come to learn something new, get educated and for some element of fun as well. I recommend use of some creativity in promoting safety. It would not be of much interest to pupils in a dry topic such as safety, and they at their age might not understand the importance of it as well. Hence to devise safety promotional strategies, one can use the school curriculum as well but creatively. A weekend drawing competition on safety in school, or an elocution competition on how the student saw a hazard and prevented it can be conducted. This will keep the student engaged and become aware about safety and its importance at the same time. Item1: measure the % of students participating in each competition and notice the increase or decrease in participation one the training sessions are started Item 2: measure the range of age group participating in these competitions and hence focus more on the age group who has less participation Item 3: Qualitative work which comes out from this competition can be assessed to have a Sense of how much the students have grasped from the training and seminars P2 – F3: Safety learning openness Since safety is a topic where not much has to be hidden by the management team from the staff and students, a very open conversation can take place. The training can be held in much informal way which will enable the students and staff members to interact with each other and cite examples from their real life. A qualitative eye can be kept on the participating group. Is it from a particular class, particular group or students of particular subject? Openness to learning concepts of safety in school is also something which needs to be considered. Pupils or staff may not be particularly interested in this as it’s a little dry subject. Hence one has to maintain creativity in communication, training and implementation throughout. Item 1: number of participants who voluntarily attend the bi monthly meeting Item 2: % of staff members or pupils who talk, discuss, and argue while the training session is on. This shows openness to discuss and learn and acceptability for safety measures. P2 – F4: Safety knowledge and competence Knowledge and competence will need to be measured and checked at all times among all categories of participants. Right from the top management team till the volunteering clerk needs to be checked for his competence and knowledge pertaining to the role they are in. for example a person responsible for fire drill should know the first aid basics apart from fire exits and fire extinguisher locations etc. The top management team should be aware of legalities involved in health and safety of schools. Hence knowledge has to be assessed and refreshed every now and then. Item 1: Tests for each category of member like the top management team, the administrative staff and the students to access how much knowledge have they gathered regarding safety procedures and its importance Item 2: % of staff and pupils who pass the training tests conducted during the bi monthly meet and also during the 6 monthly drill P3: SAFETY POLICY, PROCEDURE AND PROCESSES This is an important factor in BSC framework and one of the most critical perspectives. This is because this is the base of everything what will happen eventually. This is the script and this is what will make or break the movie. This is the only perspective which is most heavily influenced by external factors like the legislations, laws and requirements by local council for satisfactory health and safety certification of the school. Hence it is important to make it a part of BSC and keep a constant check with latest developments in the sector. P3 – F1: Safety audits and reviews What is done in an organized way need not always be the best way. Over a period of time if the same thing is done again and again the effectiveness of it decreases. Hence it is important for a third person to enter the scene and get some new life and ideas in it. Also if all the stake holders of the school are involved in strategizing and implementing the safety program, who will actually keep an eye that things are done in the direction intended. Safety audits and reviews are necessary so that the direction predetermined is not lost, there is less scope of people juggling data, money or substance for personal gain and jeopardize health and safety of pupils in the school. Audits are of various types. The documentation maintained in name of safety can be checked by the auditors once every year. This can include the training materials used, information of the competitions conducted and the hierarchy followed in the safety implementation team. Also the equipments like the first aid kit, fire extinguishers, defibrillators etc can be spot checked for its ability to work when in need. This will ensure not only the program is on track but also save jeopardizing the lives of hundreds of pupils who come everyday to study expecting a safe environment. Item 1: Auditors can have their own scoring system for documentation maintained for execution of the safety drive Item 2: Separate rating system for handling and condition of existing equipment can be devised Item 3: Scoring system for the quality of training material used Item 4: Cost and expense done on maintenance and execution of proper safety measures can be jolt down and seen with kind of results achieved P3 – F2: Safety accountability and feedback Once the audit takes place it has to have a responsible person to whom they can submit the report. He should have necessary power to make any changes in the system if required. The principal or Vice chancellor of the school seems to be the most appropriate person for this. There are two reasons as the name of the factor suggests that there should be someone who is accountable and to whom a feedback can be given. Item 1: In the bi monthly meeting for training and discussion purposes, pupils and staff should be given an opportunity for submitting their feedback and suggestions regarding safety. Item 2: An annual report on Health and Safety in school should be published and sent out to parents if possible in soft copy format Item 3: Once the feedback is taken, plans to implement the changes and to incorporate new things can be carried out by the joint committee P3 - F3: Safety policies and procedures This is basically the rule book by which the whole safety plan will be executed. If anyone has any doubts they should be ideally referring to the Safety policies and procedures handbook. This is a kind of ready reckoner which can be used by pupils and staff alike. List of things available on campus for safety, instructions on good practices, examples on types of health and safety risk and the names and contact details of contactable persons in case of emergency. Item 1: A copy of The Health and Safety guide which is available in market should be readily available in library, staff room and admin office Item 2: A customized hand book, which is basically a list of directly relevant rules and regulations and processes for a school should be mentioned. Item 3: Provide a copy of good safety practices hand book to parents while starting the new year and urge the parents to let their children understand as much they can Item 4: This copy should be ideally proof read and examined by a professional health and safety advisor and then published for everyone’s use. P3 – F4: Safety operations and governance Once the policies and procedures are in place, there has to be a clear understanding of who is responsible for what. Clearly the chief of all, the chairman of the safety committee or the principal can not bear all the responsibility and accountability. There are various roles which needs to be carried out on monthly, weekly, daily basis and hence distribution of work is important. Higher level students also have to be made part of this. Maintenance of safety equipment, first aid kits, other accessories, the training material and communication data should be distributed among staff for better management. So the role of the chief is only to monitor that each one is doing its responsibility with truthfulness or not. This way the governance part is with higher ups and the safety operations lies with many people and hence its a team work. Item 1: Distribution of work should be as per the judge capability and eagerness to volunteer for that work Item 2: A check needs to be kept from time to time to see if the safety operations team is e executing the work as per the policy laid down. Audit team would generally check that, along with checking if the governance is playing its real role or not. Item 3: % of staff and pupils directly give a role or a responsibility can be kept as a parameter to check its efficiency. Too many or too less can create confusion or work not complete scenario. P3 – F5: Built Environment Maintenance Once the whole system is in place and is working fine, the chief can take up an additional role to look after and maintenance of the whole environment created. This is his role basically modified a little to look after the system as a child. Time to time update, educating, teaching and learning himself will be required to keep the system oiled and running. The items in this will be subjective and solely dependent on the style of the chief manager of the safety program as to how he wants to do it. Auditors and BSC score shall be an indicator of his performance. P4: PERSONAL SAFETY CULTURE As people say there are few things they don’t teach you in schools, its best left to the individual how he wants to learn it. There are ways of learning things in life, either you observe and see others and learn from their mistakes. Other way is to commit that mistake yourself and learn a lesson. This perspective is basically based on individual behavior and his attitude towards safety precautions and best practices. Ability to report dangerous health and safety situations, taking charge of situation, being responsible for ones own safety and self motivation to volunteer and be a part of the team. P4 – F1: Propensity to report accidents and incidents Is the system in school open and friendly that if any incidents take place in the school, the pupils should go to the administration and draw their attention? Do pupils and staff think that it’s better to report an accident rather than just hide away the facts? This factor is examining the tendency of people for such reports. This in one way reflects on the character of the person and also on how reliable the system is as perceived by the members of school. Item 1: % of the cases which were formally reported to the administration as compared to the number of accidents which actually happened which the administration came to know from various sources Item 2: A small survey of a sample audience from pupils and staff can be taken to see and measure this propensity. It its low or high, necessary communication strategy can be devised to rebuild the confidence in the system so that each big and small case is reported. Item 3: Since students are not very friendly with the administration system or even with teachers most of the times, a student’s cell of responsible and mature students can be made. Pupils who want to report something in anonymity can do that to them and confide in them. This will lead to an increase in reporting of instances and necessary steps for health and safety can be taken quickly. P4 – F2: Safety motivation There are two ways one can see this factor. The whole support system for ensuring the safety can take steps towards motivating individuals to be safe, keep their dear ones safe in school and to report the accidents as soon as possible. Other way is to gauge that how motivated are the individuals to take part in safety drills, preparing material for training and seminars and taking care of themselves as well. Safety motivation comes internally or if you are communicated the ill effects of what might happen to you if proper procedures are not followed. Item 1: A small questionnaire survey of selected sample of students to gauge the motivation level in them Item 2: A small survey and interview of the staff members who might not be a part of the committee for health and safety Item 3: % of pupils and staff members who have volunteered to be a part of the safety committee and its change over a period of time P4 – F3: Individual responsibility to safety Rome was not built in a day and neither is a school. It is the combined effort of many people who does their own bit right and hence we get a great school. Similarly the safety system at the end of day is dependent on people. They should not only be responsible for running the system, but also responsible for their own safety. If a student or a staff is no where related to the whole safety program, but if he takes care of himself, he is doing his own small bit to make the safety program a success. An individual should have responsibility to safety for himself and people surrounding him at any time. Item 1: % of events caused due to personal negligence can be counted. This is a measure of an individual’s irresponsibility which caused the accident Item 2: % of people who were involved in accidents and without fear of administration or others helped keep people safe. This can be an indication of people who understand their responsibility, as compared to people who were there at the site of incident but did not bother to report or help others. P4 – F4: Perception of work situation and pressure A cautious pupil who is brought up in friendly, supportive and educated environment will always be well aware of risks of various activities they do. Correct upbringing effects how a person perceives the risk in any given activity. it is important to measure this perception of work situation and pressure on staff and pupils alike. Item 1: Questionnaire by asking them subjective and objective multi choice questions to determine the perception of pupils and staff towards work situation and pressure P4 – F5: Fatalism It will be the most unfortunate event in case of any staff or pupils fatality. This will be the absolutely last thing the school will want. One has to be aware that when one fatality occurs its not one but it effects the family members, close friends, reputation of school and effect on other pupils. Item 1: No. of fatalities in a given period Item 2: No. of near death fatal accidents which could have been avoided Item 3: No. of near death fatal accidents which could not have been avoided P5: SAFETY PERFORMANCE This is the last perspective which will enable us to create a BSC for schools in Saudi. This helps the management to actually measure and see for them how the program they created is doing. The measurement can be measured in no. of ways. By looking at historical data of incidents happening and being reported, by looking at the awareness level of staff and pupils and how the training and seminars have lead to increase/decrease in incidents and their reporting. General safety behavior of staff and pupils, emergency responses promptness and the corrective actions taken on each feedback received during bi monthly meets are a measure of safety performance. P5 – F1: General safety behavior of staff This measures the attitude and behavior of staff towards the whole program and concept of health and safety. One has to have a correct mind set to be apart of this program. If one thinks that these things are not going to work and they just to meet local council rule and regulations, he needs counseling and proper guidance of its importance. This general behavior can be known if the head of the committee takes one on one interview or holds talks with individuals of the team. Other way is to carry out a survey with all staff members involved to see the seriousness in their approach towards this. Item 1: A Questionnaire trying to find out the general behavior P5 – F2: General safety behavior of students This can be done in exactly the same way as for staff for those students who have volunteered to be a part of the safety program, or the members of student committee or team leaders. But for general student behavior who is not directly involved is also best done with the help of a questionnaire or by talking to the class teachers. Teachers can be trained to have short conversations with students in class to gauge their attitude and behavior towards safety and its ideal procedures to be followed. Item 1: A Questionnaire trying to find out the general behavior Item 2: Teachers can be equipped and taught how to discuss with students safety and its importance in daily life and see their behavior towards it. P5 – F3: Accidents and incident rates This is the most critical parameter which will indicate success or failure of the whole safety program. Even after the BSC is implemented this will be the indicator if the BSC has been implemented properly or not. Because it’s only after proper implementation of BSC, the management team shall come to know what changes to make in order to decrease the incident rates. Accident and incident rates purely mean the number of incidents which happened within a specified time frame. Item 1: Number of incidents of general nature Item 2: Number of incidents of critical nature requiring special attention Item 3: One can also have a look into frequency of incidents over a specified period. This indicates with what rate incidents take place. Does the incidents increase when there is any special season, or any special event in school. P5 – F4: Emergency response When talking about health and safety it is necessary that the team is prepared for emergency response. Time is of essence when it comes to dealing with health and safety issues. A rapid action force should be designated with this responsibility in school to be ready to reach at the place of incident with first aid and other things which may be required. A team of staff members and students should volunteer for being a part of this squad after required training. Item 1: No. of instances which required emergency response or required a team member to arrive as soon as possible Item 2: No. of instances in which the emergency response team was able to reach on time an save any casualty or major injury Item 3: No. of team members who volunteered for emergency response team. This team should be selected once every year to gauge the response of volunteers. P5 – F5: Safety reporting, response and corrective actions The last stage after the whole system is in place and running for sometime is to report, collect response and take corrective steps. This is the part whereby the system will get feedback on various fronts by staff and students in meetings, by auditors every year and by the people who were victims of accidents. Safety reporting can be done in various ways. Every person who is responsible for any process, equipment or committee should submit a half yearly report to the central team for assessment. If its equipment details like how many times was it used, does it require repair and when should it be replaced. A person responsible for a process can give a report with how many times the process was followed or not followed and why. All this data cumulatively will help in taking corrective action in terms of repairing or replacing the equipment, changing or modifying the process and adding deleting new members from teams. Item 1: A reporting format can be created for each equipment, process and policy which can be reviewed at year end Item 2: Feedback mechanism has to be created. Personal feedback can be taken in meetings and training schedules from staff and students. Item 3: The student confession cell can take feedback from students who fear to go to administration. Item 4: Auditors report can be a valuable feed back and response to take corrective actions Read More