Department of the Interior, Safety and Health Strategic Plan

For almost 160 years, the employees of the Department of the Interior have served as stewards of the natural, cultural, and historical resources of the people of the United States. The Department of the Interior’s mission is complex and multifaceted and the programs and mission stretch from the North Pole to the South Pole and across twelve time zones. The Department’s mandate rivals any government agency in its breadth and diversity – and its importance to the everyday lives of Americans is inestimable. Additionally, in these challenging times of increasingly scarce resources across the globe, Interior’s responsibilities are expanding as the Nation looks to its public lands for energy, water, food, wildlife protection, recreation, and enhanced security.

Purpose:

We recognize that an effective workforce will be more critical than ever to the continued success of the Department of the Interior. Our people define our character, culture, and capacity to perform, and our ability to achieve our mission is dependent upon conducting our work safely in hazardous environments, and where possible, providing our visitors and partners a safe experience on Interior-managed facilities and lands.

Challenges Ahead:

Our programmatic challenges have significant health and safety implications over the next several years. In the areas of resource management, visitor services, wildland fire management, infrastructure maintenance, law enforcement, security, and emergency response, programmatic challenges pose risks to our workforce and our facilities.

Enhancing our Safety Culture:

Knowledge of responsibilities and actions necessary to control exposures to Safety and Occupational Health hazards are an essential part of everyone’s duties in the Department. Ensuring that our managers, supervisors and employees have the knowledge, skills, resources, and commitment to control hazards in the workplace will assist in our efforts to protect both our employees and the visiting public. It will enhance our safety culture and ensure that we remain an employer of choice and a trusted icon to the American public.

Mission Statement

Support accomplishment of the Department of the Interior’s mission by providing employees with safe and healthy working conditions and promoting a culture that recognizes and prevents workplace hazards.

Vision Statement

The DOI Safety and Occupational Health Program advances a workplace and work life that promotes and protects employee safety, health, and productivity.

Measuring our Progress:

This strategic plan has four goals. Each goal includes strategies and measurable outcomes, and is intended to provide broad direction to senior leadership within Offices in the Department, within the Bureaus, and to the DOI Designated Safety and Health Official and the Director of the DOI Office of Occupational Health and Safety.

While measuring each effort that positively affects our safety culture is difficult, Interior is determined to use strategic and operational goals and measures that will hold executives and managers accountable for recognizing and controlling risk in the workplace.

A separate guidance document, the DOI Comprehensive Safety and Health Program Elements, is intended to provide more specific safety program guidance to Bureau Managers and Bureau Safety Offices in the formulation and implementation of the Bureau safety programs. Interior’s managers and employees are responsible for implementing the program elements and accomplishing the mission and vision for Safety and Occupational Health. Operational decisions influence our work environment and must contribute to maintaining or improving employee and visitor safety.

The DOI Safety community will work with our managers to implement and continuously improve a safety and occupational health program. By including measurable goals and results in strategic and operational planning, DOI will be able to evaluate progress and implement the most effective actions to meet or exceed its “Safety, Health and Return to Employment” (SHARE) initiative goals for Federal employees, and most importantly, reduce the employee exposure to hazards that cause occupational injuries and illnesses.

Our goals fall into four categories:

Enhance the Role of Leadership in Promoting a Culture of Safety.
Engage Employees in Reaching Safety and Health Commitments.
Prevent Exposure to Hazards and Mitigate Risk to our Employees
Implement, evaluate, and continuously improve the DOI Safety and Health Program

1. Enhance the Role of Leadership in Promoting a Culture of Safety.

Outcome Goal 1:

Executives and Managers in DOI Offices and Bureaus are aware of their roles and responsibilities for implementation of the DOI Safety Program.

Strategy 1 Identify key training elements and develop Executive and Manager training materials.
Strategy 2 Provide awareness training to all Executives and Managers
Strategy 3 Executives and Managers demonstrate leadership actions by becoming a motivational force for safety program implementation.

Measurements:

Percent of executives and managers completing training on their Safety and Occupational Health responsibilities.
Program reviews indicate leadership involvement in promoting the safety culture.

2. Engage Employees in Reaching Safety and Health Commitments.

Outcome Goal 2:

Provide a DOI wide environment that supports employee involvement in the Safety Program.

Strategy 1 Identify and provide Managers and Supervisors with guidance and techniques to foster employee participation in the safety program
Strategy 2 Establish effective management/employee safety committees at DOI and within Bureaus.
Strategy 3 Develop and provide training for supervisors and employees on roles, responsibilities and opportunities.

Measurements:

Percent of supervisors and employees completing training on their Safety and Occupational Health responsibilities.
Number of bureaus with safety councils.
Percent of identified workplaces with active management/employee safety committees.

3. Identify, Evaluate and Control Employee Exposures to Workplace Hazards

Outcome Goal 3:

Improve identification and response to occupational hazards.

Strategy 1 Hazards are assigned Risk Assessment Codes (RAC 1-5) and are controlled or abated within DOI established timelines.
Strategy 2 Executives provide resources to control employee exposure to hazards.

Measurements:

Adequate funding to address hazard exposure is identified at the DOI office and Bureau level and use of funding documented.
Time lapsed to abate hazards

Strategy 3 New employee safety orientation is required.
Strategy 4 Employees receive training pertinent to their tasks and hazards in their workplace.

Measurements:

Percent of new employees trained within 30 days of appointment.
Percent of employees trained as documented by training records and other hazard communication notices.

4. Implement, evaluate, and continuously improve the DOI Safety and Health Program and meet or exceed all Federal Safety and Health Regulations and Requirements.

Outcome Goal 4:

Implement comprehensive safety and occupational health program (per guidance in the DOI DM 485 and the attached DOI Comprehensive Safety and Health Program Elements document) and continuously improve through evaluation and analysis.

Strategy 1 Bureaus and Offices integrate the key elements of a comprehensive safety and occupational health program into existing safety management programs and all DOI operations through policies, procedures and training.
Strategy 2 Safety Program Reviews are conducted by DOI and the Bureaus.
Strategy 3 Appropriate safety and occupational health staffing levels are determined and maintained by each Bureau

Measurements:

Bureau and Office program reviews indicate that Safety and Occupational Health program key elements are integrated into bureau and office management programs, policies and procedures.
Percent of Safety Program reviews completed during the 3-year cycle
Percent of bureaus that have completed a staffing analysis based on the criteria established by DOI.

Strategy 4 Exposure assessments are conducted and acted on for affected employees
Strategy 5 Improve timeliness of input and review of accident reports and corrective action implementation.

Measurements:

Percent of worksites that have completed and documented comprehensive exposure assessments.
Lapsed time reporting, reviewing accidents as measured by DOI Accident Recordkeeping system