Management of Change – From little changes, big hazards grow

An incident occurs, a light vehicle fails to stop at a stop sign and hits another light vehicle. The consequences of the incident include a lost time injury and medical treatment injury. During the investigation, in the search for the root cause, the usual suspects are rounded up: speed, operator inattention, inclement weather, visibility, equipment failure to name just a few. But what if the root cause of this incident was none of the above? What if the real culprit was that the organisation failed to manage change when an intersection was modified?

A management of change process would have required that a risk assessment was conducted to identify the potential hazards of the change and that that all personnel impacted by the change were informed.

Management of change does not need to be overly complex, but to be successful it must:

• Be consistently applied;

• Assess the risks of the proposed changes and identify appropriate controls;

• Be effectively communicated to affected personnel;

• Ensure changes are approved by appropriate people relative to the change.

Implementation of a Management of Change process is critical for any business which seeks to innovate and improve.

At EHSQ Management Solutions, we have a cost effective template, to help implement Management of Change, available on our website www.ehsqsolutions.com

We also have a team of experienced consultants who can help your business implement systems and improve EHSQ performance. Contact us today to find out how we can add value to your business.