The supervisor is the linchpin to workplace safety. But getting supervisors to understand, accept and perform their role in ensuring safety is a challenge for management. "It's all about accountability," says Canadian safety consultant Wayne Pardy. "You need to tell supervisors what you expect of them and apply those expectations to assess their performance," he explains.

This article will show you how to create job descriptions for supervisors that address safety concerns. There's also a model job description for a supervisor that you can access in the tools archives if you're a SafetyXChange member.

How Job Descriptions Promote Accountability

Accountability is a fancy word for telling people in your company what you expect them to do and making sure they do it. Accountability is vital to every aspect of operations. "Everybody in the organization needs to know what's expected of them so they can tell if they're doing their job," explains Pardy.

Job descriptions are one of the tools management can use to communicate its expectations. To lay the groundwork for real acountability, job descriptions must be clearly worded, action-oriented and specific. "If the job description doesn't convey management's expectations, the accountability system can break down," explains Pardy.

SafetyXChange Pointer: Just telling people what functions you want them to perform isn't enough. You must also train them how. For example, if you expect supervisors to investigate accidents, you need to show them how to conduct an investigation. "This isn't a skill people are born with," Pardy explains.

Supervisors' Accountability for Safety

At many companies, there needs to be more accountability for health and safety. "Historically, safety has lagged behind other areas of the business as far as accountability is concerned," Pardy explains. "One reason is that safety has been conceived as some vague notion of motherhood - a 'nice thing to do' for workers." Because of this, responsibility for safety has fallen on everybody and thus nobody in particular.

Supervisor job descriptions reflect this. There are three patterns:

1. Silence: Some companies use job descriptions that talk all about production and quality control but don't say a word about safety. "Safety isn't something that needs to be spelled out to a good supervisor; if you just hire competent people, they'll know what to do," explains a safety officer at one of these companies.

2. Lip Service: Other job descriptions talk about safety but not in a meaningful way. They typically mention that safety is part of the supervisors' responsibility or pay homage to safety as a value. But they don't tell supervisors what they're expected to do. Examples:

• "Supervisors shall play an active role in safeguarding the health and safety of the workplace."
• "You are responsible for taking any and all steps necessary to protect employees and others against occupational accidents, injuries and illnesses."
• "Supervisors must ensure that all work is carried out safely and in accordance with all applicable regulatory, industry and other pertinent standards."

3. General: Some companies list safety-related functions in a broad and vague way. For example, one job description says supervisors are responsible for "holding safety meetings" but doesn't give the crucial details like what "safety meetings" are and how often they should be held.

How to List Safety Responsibilities in Job Descriptions

To establish accountability, job descriptions should define safety-related functions in terms of discrete and measurable tasks. The model job description in Tools is one example of how to do that. Keep in mind that this model isn't meant as a one-size-fits-all. The tasks it lists are simple and basic, not a complete retinue of safety-related functions. The important thing to take from the Model is the approach.

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