Businesses deal with a variety of issues both inside and outside the workplace. These include workplace accidents that can have a huge impact on any organization, as they cause financial loss, reduction of sales, low staff morale, and loss of productivity and reputation. For example, if one of your employees takes an Uber to meet clients and unexpectedly encounters a car crash, you have to cover their hospitalization fees and hire an Uber accident attorney to deal with the claims and damage.
Workplace accidents and other forms of business challenges require a corrective action plan to reduce the risk of incidents and mitigate the cause of workplace issues. To help you implement a corrective action system across the company, here are ways to develop a corrective action plan:
Determine whether the situation requires for it
Not every problem requires corrective action. The main purpose of creating a corrective action plan is to determine and resolve systemic issues that endanger the company’s quality of operations. You can conduct a risk analysis to identify the severity of the issue and decide whether it requires corrective action. This will consider the impact and the level of risk the issue will bring to the business, product, or services.
When examining an issue, your goal is to detect fundamental obstacles that make the standards and guidelines in your workplace difficult to achieve. You have to tackle the core issue so that it’s easy to come up with feasible solutions.
Investigate the cause
Root-cause analysis (RCA) is a strategical approach in identifying root causes and analyzing issues to resolve counterproductive events or problems. After all, it’s easy to solve an issue if you know how to eliminate the root cause instead of simply addressing the perceived symptoms. Although the root cause looks obvious, it’s necessary to carefully investigate every potential angle since the causes can direct towards the next steps. RCA works for repetitive and systemic issues that can’t be addressed immediately.
When facilitating the investigation, make sure to include as many relevant sources as possible. These may include industry reports, scientific research, third-party experts, inspections done by authorities, discussions with management, and interviews with witnesses. When planning the corrective action, it’s important to engage the leaders and team members throughout the process. Consider using compliance management software to support collaboration, especially for remote teams.
Identify and discuss corrective actions
After identifying the root cause, work with the team and relevant authorities to discuss appropriate corrective actions. From there, assess the pros and cons of suggested corrective actions and identify which ones will address the root cause. Here are some guide questions when evaluating possible corrective actions.
- Will it reduce the risk of future incidents?
- Can we implement it right away?
- Is it compliant with health, safety, and environmental standards?
- Is it easy to adopt?
- What are the required investments?
- Is it cost-effective?
Draft the corrective action plan
Once you’ve recognized the most feasible corrective actions to implement, it’s time to draft the corrective action plan. In the development stage, you have to assign teams and give them the responsibility and authority to write the plan and ensure proper implementation.
When writing the plan, make sure to be specific when discussing the policy, procedure, timeline, type of tasks to implement, the point people for each task, and the responsibilities of employees. More importantly, the plan should be structured properly and be compatible and functional with current management practices.
Ensure proper implementation
To ensure a successful implementation, the corrective action plan should be properly communicated across the organization. Emphasize the importance of everyone’s involvement, from the top management to the front-line employees. Explain the rationale and how it will promote positive changes
For proper distribution of information, use a digital communication platform to notify the point people about their designated tasks. You can also set up a channel where people can express their feedback or suggestions while the team is implementing the action plan. The data collected will help you apply necessary adjustments or modifications for revision.
Another way to ensure the effectiveness of the corrective action plan is to conduct regular follow-ups. Discuss with the assigned team how the implementation went, including the positive and negative impacts. You can do it weekly, monthly, or annually, depending on the risk or severity associated with the problem. You can also provide adequate training if people have difficulty adapting to the change.
Creating a corrective action plan can be a daunting process involving many complex moving parts. That’s why it’s crucial to ensure everyone is involved to ensure a fast and smooth implementation. When executed properly, you’ll witness significant operational improvements that conform with quality standards.