Effectively Manage Employee Participation Using Process Safety Enterprise®

Process Safety Enterprise^® (PSE), a cloud-based platform, helps manage employee participation, ensuring compliance with OSHA's PSM standard. This white paper details the key features of PSE, including:

• Document Control System: Easily stores and retrieves documents
• Intelligent Form Builder: Creates customizable forms
• Action Tracking System: Manages all tasks related to the workflow
• Reporting and Dashboard/KPI: Provides real-time insights into activities
• Employee Participation Workflow: Guides users through the workflow for training employees on the PSE workflow, notifying employees of PSM activity results, and tracking participation in creating, reviewing, or updating PSM documents.

A case study highlights how PSE and an Employee Participation workflow could have helped to prevent this disaster by implementing an effective near-miss reporting system with active employee participation.

Introduction

Employee participation is a critical part of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) Process Safety Management (PSM) 29 CFR 1910.119(c) standard. This element ensures that employees are engaged and informed about the PSM elements and activities that impact their ability to work safely.

Businesses often encounter challenges in including employees in the PSM process, as it involves the intricacies of documenting and implementing these practices. Results from PSM activities such as PHAs or incident investigations must be reviewed with impacted employees. Tracking the participation in creating, reviewing, and updating PSM procedures must also be documented to show that these activities occurred. Overlooking these responsibilities risks the safety of employees, plant assets, the community, and the environment. Moreover, the lack of employee engagement can lead to accidents that cause production interruptions.

An effective Employee Participation workflow should include an easy process for training employees on the documentation process, notifying employees of PSM activity results, and capturing the names of people who create, review, or update PSM documents. A document management system is needed to create and store the original and completed documents, including the written plan for employee participation.

Effective employee participation systems help companies document, plan, execute, and store required activities and training for this element. This workflow can help companies comply with the PSM requirements of the 29 CFR 1910.119 standard.

For businesses serious about implementing a comprehensive PSM compliance system, ioMosaic offers the Process Safety Enterprise^® (PSE) (Figure 1). PSE is a cloud-based platform enabling easy ongoing management of process safety data, helping businesses achieve compliance, manage risk, and remain competitive. Unlike any other system available in the market today, PSE is a centralized web-based application that integrates all PSM elements and workflows, making it THE ultimate solution for managing employee participation effectively. This white paper will delve into the key features of the Employee Participation workflow and how it benefits companies seeking to improve and elevate their systems to establish, implement, and maintain the PSM program with the help of qualified employees.

To help you better understand the requirements of the PSM standard, we recommend a PSM Essentials eLearning course like the one offered by Process Safety Learning^®.