Do you have a spill contigency plan?

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By Robert McIntyre

Do you havea spill contingency plan that gathers more bust than your floor 

Reduce your liability, inject real life into your plan by including the few durty words: "EMPLOYEE OWNERSHIP!"
 

QUICK FACTS AND BENEFITS OF EMPLYEE BUY IN / OWNERSHIP IN YOU’RE PLAN.

So you’re spill contingency plan is (or was) a nice binder sitting on a shelf in all the managers offices at your company or organization.  It was a concerted effort at one time to comply with certain pieces of legislation requiring contingency plans to be in place in the event of an accidental release of whatever hazardous material your company deals with.  However, since it was written it has developed a nice thick layer of protective material called dust!!.  Don’t feel bad 90% of contingency plans fall into this category.

FACT:    EMPLOYEE OWNSHIP IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS

Let’s face it, your employees are the ones that react when the rubber hits the road so to speak.  These are the first people on the scene and the decisions they are making had better be educated ones or the outcome could be costly in both environmental and human health.  When employees are involved in the authoring of plans and procedures they feel a sense of ownership and pride (not to mention the fact that if they wrote the procedures for dealing with spills they would probably be more likely to remember them in an emergency situation.)  Plans that have simply been drafted by senior management and circulated to the masses generally fall into that category of dust collectors.  These bring no value to the organization it’s just simply wasted money.

FACT:    EMPLOYEES WORK BEST WHEN WORKING BASED ON PROCEDURES

Whether it is fueling a vehicle or responding to a spill on water, employees follow procedures well because our minds work based on doing tasks one by one even if it means ten tasks in two seconds.  Over time these tasks become habit and when good habits are formed we are less likely to have spills and accidents in the first place.  That is why the best plans out there today are procedure driven (i.e. a series of Standard Operating Procedures or SOP’s) and not reams of text that someone has to read.  Another thing to remember is that when someone is panicked it is much easier to scan a stepwise procedure than read four or five paragraphs.

FACT:    WHEN EMPLOYEES FEEL OWNERSHIP OF SOP’S THEY MAKE SURE THE CHANGES ARE MADE

Your plan collects dust for two reasons and two reasons only; your employees have memorized all the procedures and they don’t have to reference it at all or (and this is the more likely scenario) no one ever thinks to make sure the procedures are correct because they are not being followed in the first place.  When an employee who has taken ownership of a plan sees differences between the application of the procedures and the way the are written they are more likely to action change to make sure the procedures reflect what is taking place and that the information is correct.

FACT:    ANY CONTINGENCY PLAN SHOULD BE TESTED EVERY YEAR

Depending on what province or state you are located in there are numerous pieces of legislation that requires any contingency plan be executed annually to ensure the accuracy of information such as contact numbers and to ensure that the procedures are properly being followed.  Records of all drills are to be kept with the plan along with a list of revisions. 

BE PROACTIVE NOT REACTIVE

Proactive planning is far and away the most cost effective way of preparing for a response to a spill.  By having all the resources available to respond to a spill at the onset, a quick and effective response is assured.  Reacting to situations and not having the proper pre-planning and training along with equipment in place will only ensure one thing, failure and a big bill for cleanup

that would sure to give you a headache.

PAINLESS TO FIX

Revising you’re existing plan to be more procedure driven and getting the buy in from you’re employees that will ensure success is really not all that hard to achieve.  Raymac offers a Contingency Plan Upgrade Service that includes 100% participation with employees and will ensure that your liabilities are minimized.