Procedures - Plans - Guides

Procedures, Process Descriptions and Work Methods

Procedures or process descriptions provide the information necessary to enact a policy, undertake an activity or operate plant or equipment.

Where a policy is in place it is normal that a procedure or other supporting information is provided to enact the policy.

Procedures may also be in the form of work methods/safe work methods or other such process descriptive documents that come about as a result of a workplace consultative risk assessment process.

Like policies, procedures should be monitored for effectiveness and periodically reviewed against policy and regulatory requirements.

Plans and Guides

Plans are useful documents when implementing or managing systems, for activities such as scheduled maintenance, managing change or monitoring performance.

Plans that affect OH&S may take the form of:

• Risk Control Plans
• Implementation Plans/Strategies
• Training Plans
• Emergency Plans
• Maintenance Plans
• Traffic Management Plans

A typical plan shall include strategies, actions required, KPI’s, accountabilities and responsibilities and timelines. Plans should be monitored and periodically reviewed against KPI’s for effectiveness in implementation.

Guides are documents that provide additional and supporting information to existing policies, procedures and operational manuals such as provided by plant and equipment manufacturers.

Typically they are used for induction and training purposes and also as supporting documents to procedures and policies.