Safety audits and assessments have long been the gold standard for evaluating the effectiveness of a company's processes and procedures in protecting employees and the environment, mitigating risks and ensuring compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.
PSC Group, a leading provider of product handling, site logistics and sustainability services, has invested considerable resources in developing and refining its Internal Self-Assessment (ISA) program.
"Our ISA program ensures we hold ourselves accountable to meet our customers' expectations and regulatory requirements, and it's also a vital part of our commitment to operational excellence," said Adam Gilmore, senior VP of operations for PSC.
Using industry knowledge and experience gained from more than 70 years of operations at refineries, terminals, docks and chemical plants across the U.S., PSC's assessment process covers all aspects of the company's operations at a site: employee involvement and training, policy and procedure review, HR, Legal, OSHA, DOT, FRA and U.S. Coast Guard regulatory compliance.
PSC's ISA team is made up of seasoned operations, safety and compliance experts. They typically visit each of the company's 125-plus site operations annually to conduct an in-depth evaluation that includes field employee and leadership interviews, observations and documentation reviews.
"These assessments can last one-to-two days at each site as our ISA team takes a deep dive into the operation," said Gilmore. "They will typically interview a cross-section of employees, both new and experienced, and observe a variety of tasks being performed and verify against procedure."
The team creates a list of recommendations and action items to address identified risks and areas of non-compliance. The findings and recommendations are reviewed with site leaders at the close of the assessment. The action plan is then documented in PSC's operations reporting system, with timely follow-ups scheduled to ensure progress and completion.
"This helps keep everyone accountable for making those changes and corrections," added Gilmore. "We share the assessment findings with our customers, as transparency is critical for customer satisfaction," said Gilmore.
In most cases, the ISA team provides ongoing support and guidance to help the operations leaders in correcting any identified issues.
In addition to the routine annual site assessments, ISA team members conduct assessments following new job start-ups, to ensure the operation is off to a good start in terms of performance, safety and compliance.
"We also rely on our ISA team to conduct spot checks when we have a major leadership change in an operation, to make sure there are no gaps or issues between the previous leader and new leader," said Gilmore.
PSC's ISA program has proven to be of value to customers when they are going through audits conducted by outside agencies. "Our customers rely on us to provide the appropriate documentation related to compliance in the areas of operations that we're handling, and they appreciate that we try to stay ahead of the game with our own internal audit process," added Gilmore.
For more information about PSC's services, visit www.pscgroup.com or call (281) 991-3500.
