Evil SWMS - The devil is in too much detail.
If you wanted to alert workers to a serious risk would you provide them with clear unambiguous warning and succinct guidance on the safe procedure, or would you hide important precautions among lots of routine administrative information?
Unfortunately, we find during our audits that most safe work method statements (SWMS) are tedious, excessively long, with convoluted structure and quite simply not fit for purpose.
As best we can tell these SWMS have been prepared by well-meaning enthusiastic, although sometimes fanatical, people who try to put everything they know about safety into every SWMS.
This situation caused me to think, if the Devil was to prepare a SWMS what would it look like?
What would a Devil SWMS look like?
Tragically, we have concluded the Devil would do exactly the same as most safety officers are still doing all around industry today.
Devil’s SWMS
So what would the Devil do?
Do not highlight critical risks but swamp them with every trivial hazard you can think up.
Make the document so long it would not be practical to have a copy or read it in the field or on the job eg designed only for desktop audit.
Fill the first few pages with mundane administrative information, so they think the whole document is irrelevant to their work.
Use dull and repetitive language throughout to ensure the reader quickly loses interest.
Hide important instructions and safety precautions in amongst lots of boring and unimportant information.
Don’t audit compliance with the SWMS eg only prepared to pass audits.
Don’t use numbering or bold headings for key points, so they are harder to find.
The “Weight Test”
Many people feel uncomfortable if their SWMS is succinct, because they fear others will think it is defective or insufficient for the circumstances. So, they add more “stuff” which results in SWMS that are commonly 10, or even 15 pages long.
SWMS are for Workers, not Auditors
The safety regulations never intended SWMS be expanded to satisfy all the peculiar requirements of certification auditors, or safety officers trying to impress how cleaver they are with sophisticated documents and procedures.
The real audience for SWMS are the workers doing the job
We should start by focusing on what the workplace safety regulations intended SWMS to achieve.
Focus SWMS on Hazards & Controls
The regulations prescribe what is to be included in a SWMS, per below:
Identify high-risk construction work; and
Hazards (associated with the task); and
Controls eg Precautions to control the identified hazards.
Plus, for WA list equipment to be used and qualifications for equipment/task.
Anything else put into a SWMS merely acts to dilute warnings about hazards, or disguise important precautions that need to be taken.
Remember, an imperfect safety procedure that is easy to understand and is followed all the time is more effective than the “perfect” lengthy procedure, which is often not understood or simply ignored.
Recipe for an Effective SWMS
There are four (4) simple stages to preparing an effective SWMS eg:
Break the task down into its basic steps;
List the key hazards associated with each step of the task;
Determine controls necessary at each step;
List equipment to be used and qualifications for task (WA Reg. requirement)
One Page SWMS
As a rule of thumb, SWMS should be no more than one page double-sided.
If your SWMS is more than one page double-sided, split the task into stages eg set-up machine, start and run machine, clear blockages or faults, shut down machine.
If you would like to learn how to prepare effective SWMS book into one of our safety leadership courses (public or in-house) or half day workshop. For dates or a quote contact Safety Action on 03 8544 4300 or email.
Gary Rowe has produced a short video on how to prepare an effective SWMS. Click here to watch.
