The PDCA method for health & safety management

To promote a culture of safe working within your business, proper processes and procedures must be embedded within the day-to-day activities of your staff.

By following a process for identifying risks, implementing changes and acting quickly to remediate hazards or to respond to emergencies in the workplace, you will have a process that works to keep your employees safe and well at work.

Introducing the PDCA cycle

The HSE recommend Plan, Do, Check, Act as a method for managing health and safety. Encouraging a concise and methodical approach to keeping the workplace and employees safe.

PDCA is broken into four stages and is a cycle which should be routinely repeated to ensure that health and safety standards are upheld and understood across a business.

1.     Plan

The first stage of the process is to plan. Planning is integral to identifying and defining the problem at hand.

2.     Do

Do, is to implement the solution. This could be a simple step such as making a small change to your operations or applying new rules to the workplace.  

3.     Check

Once a solution is implemented the process doesn’t end here. Check is the third step in the cycle and requires you to review the performance of your solution. Reporting on its impact and effectiveness.

4.     Act

Act requires you to implement any changes based on the lessons you have learned. For example, if you check your implementations but notice staff are not adhering to your requirements, you could act in this by implementing a new company policy.

Applying the Plan Do Check Act model to health and safety

Within health and safety, Plan, Do, Check, Act provides a simple yet detailed approach to implementing the right processes, measures, and steps for adhering to health & safety regulations and keeping a workplace safe.

Here’s an example of applying PDCA to the health and safety of your workplace:

Plan – Identify and define a new hazard or risk within your workplace. For example, risks associated with using a new piece of machinery in your warehouse. This will coincide with a risk assessment, allowing you to identify solutions you can implement to minimise or remove hazards entirely.

Do – Now you can implement the solutions needed. For example, safety training on how to correctly use the new piece of equipment. You could also supply additional control measures such as safety railings or machine guards, slip mats, and emergency stop devices.

Check – Once you have implemented your solutions and perhaps given it some time to garner some results, you can check how effective they are. Review the safety of your equipment, making sure safety measures are used and staff are protected. If these measures are not working, it’s time to repeat this cycle. Checking should also be carried out when a safety event occurs, such as an accident or incident. Identifying what has gone wrong and why.

Act – To act on your findings will be the final step in the cycle. When it comes to reviewing the safety of your warehouse machinery, this may involve reporting on your findings and potentially ramping up your control measures or implementing a new company policy requiring staff to adhere to strict procedures when operating machinery.

The benefits of the Plan, Do, Check, Act method

The PDCA method offers businesses a wide range of benefits and has been adopted by businesses of all sizes and specialties.

Continuous improvement of workplace safety

The cyclical process of PDCA allows for continuous improvement rather than quick fixes and stopgap solutions. This means your approach to health and safety management is ever-evolving, never stagnating and adapts to the development of your business.

Foster a culture of safety

With this continuous emphasis on health and safety, you can develop a workplace culture that places importance on health and safety. Making sure that all employees understand their duties and responsibilities but also feel safe when entering the workplace. Increasing staff engagement and subsequently, employee morale too!

Greater efficiency

This concise process is incredibly efficient and is far more effective in identifying risks and hazards and sourcing solutions than haphazardly panicking when an accident occurs. By predetermining the right solutions to keep your workplace safe, you should be able to minimise the risk of workplace injuries and emergencies.

Method can be applied across business operations

While this article focuses solely on the method for use within health and safety, there’s no reason why you can not apply PDCA to other business operations. It’s adaptable and simple to implement across all areas of management.

Once you’ve gotten to grips with the process, you can begin using it to improve other key areas of focus within your workplace, such as customer service, production, and project management.

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