Health & Safety Program Support for Government Natural Resource Agency

A government natural resources agency sought support from Antea Group to conduct health and safety (H&S) services. Several years ago, the client had budget cuts that eliminated their in-house H&S resource. Without a point person to administer their internal H&S program, their leadership team realized they needed to renew their focus on H&S. The client has sites and employees located across the state which complete tasks with varying levels of risk within their fisheries, parks, environmental services, and law enforcement departments, to name a few.

For the initial scope of work, the client requested that Antea Group complete health and safety comprehensive site assessments, job hazard analyses, a safety maturity evaluation (to assess the organization’s current safety culture), and written health and safety program development. Prior to starting the project, Antea Group had a call with the client and their expanded leadership team to collaborate on the methods and means by which the project would be completed, as well as to determine a project schedule to ensure they would be able to hit all of their milestones before the end of their fiscal year.

Over a three-week period, a team of Antea Group auditors visited and assessed the organization’s 20 sites located across the state.

Task hazard and controls information was gathered through in-person or phone interviews. On the day of the site assessments, the Antea Group auditors conducted interviews for the development of job hazard analyses.

Antea Group developed and deployed a survey to the entire organization to get insights into the perceived safety culture in various topic areas. There was an additional survey deployed to supervisors and leadership after the baseline survey was conducted. The data received from both surveys was analyzed and a score was calculated to quantify the safety maturity of the organization. The analysis broke down into detail their safety culture strengths and weaknesses.

Antea Group developed 27 written programs for the client. These programs covered traditional safety topics, as well as watercraft and dock safety and terrain vehicle safety due to the nature of the operations.

As the project was coming to an end, the client notified Antea Group that the contract for H&S services would continue. The client is working to hire full-time H&S resource(s) to implement the newly developed written programs. Antea Group would potentially provide the resource(s) with support on an ad hoc and subject matter basis and help with the implementation of the program. If the client decides to hire in-house, they indicated that Antea Group would play a role in integrating the resource(s) within the organization. The client has also expressed the need for support in developing training content, with continued support and site assessments over the course of the contract.