Natalie Lamb and the APM Project Management Qualification: Health and Safety and risk management

Members of my team recently attended a course on project management so I borrowed the APM Project Management Qualification Study Guide (2014) to give myself a bit of an insight into project management and how it links into PhDs or other similar research. This post is part of a series of posts I have produced to better split project management into a few easily digestible sections. 

Project Health and Safety 

• Make sure the health, safety and environment plan is in place
• Includes: project scope, roles and responsibilities, external standards, reporting mechanisms, project-related procedures, keeping records of training etc.
• Developed in conjunction with stakeholders in the sponsoring organisation
• Approved by the relevant health safety and environmental body in the sponsoring organisation 
• Make sure risk assessments are carried out, funded, properly recorded and actions completed 
• Don’t have to carry it out themselves but need to make sure it is done
• Have a properly trained team
• Ensure there is open and honest disclosure so staff are comfortable reporting problems
• Report near misses (RIDDOR/ Reporting of injuries, disease and dangerous occurrences regulations)
• Complete regular reviews so minor situations don’t become more serious 
• Make everyone aware of the threat of stress, which is a HSE concern 
• Ensure working hours are reasonable
• Proper relaxation facilities should be available
• Project team should be consulted when work is being allocated 
• Ensure proper safety equipment is provided, potentially using a code of practise to check the minimum requirements
• Address environmental issues including: prevention, re-use, recycle, recovery, disposal

Potential risks

• Risk = “A risk event is an uncertain event or set of circumstances that, should it occur, will have an effect on the achievement of one or more of the project’s objectives.” (AMP, 2004)
• Environmental factors can influence a project and the more aware a project manager is of them, the easier they can be prepared for and managed
• Can include: political (e.g. political influences, politically motivated stakeholders), economic, sociological, technological, legal (e.g. health and safety, GDPR), environmental (PESTLE)
• Other considerations: procurement processes, regulatory requirements, use of structured methods, the organisations’ appetite for risk, the organisation’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats 

The purpose of risk management plans

• Define how risks are dealt with
• Get improvement through feedback
• Have contingencies in place
• Ensure the project management plan is being followed
• Everyone understands what the potential risks are

The APM risk management process:

• Initiation of plan
• Includes: scope of risk management, objectives of plan (e.g. which risk reduction is planned), roles, process (for risk identification, assessment and management), tools
• Identification of risks
• E.g. by using brainstorming, interviewing, Delphi (debate), prompt lists, checklists, assumptions analysis
• Recorded on a risk log, including: ID number, description, category (strategic/project/operational/technical), potential impact, potential impact after mitigation, potential actions to mitigate risk, assignment of owner
• Assess risks 
• Asses risks quantitatively using a risk score 
• Plan responses
• Especially for the higher risk risk events
• To reduce the probability of the risk occurring and put in place contingencies if it does still occur
• E.g. with threats: accept the risk with no proactive action, avoid the risk by changing the approach, transfer the risk onto someone else’s risk log, reduce the probability or the impact
• E.g. with opportunities: reject an opportunity because it requires too much time or work, enhance the probability of an opportunity occurring, exploit by changing the scope of a project to get an extra benefit for the stakeholders, share an opportunity with others
• Implement responses 

Glossary

• APM = Association for Project Management
• RIDDOR = Reporting of injuries, disease and dangerous occurrences regulations 
• HSE = Health and Safety Executive (a government agency)
• Risk = “A risk event is an uncertain event or set of circumstances that, should it occur, will have an effect on the achievement of one or more of the project’s objectives.”
• GDPR = The EU General Data Protection Regulation
• PESTLE = political, economic, sociological, technological, legal, environmental 

References

• Association for Project Management (2014), APM Project Management Qualification Study Guide, Association for Project Management, Buckinghamshire.
• Association for Project Management (2004), Project Risk Analysis Management (PRAM) Guide, 2nd edition, Association for Project Management, Buckinghamshire.