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To request a quote or for more information on products and timelines:
Phone: (250) 819-4942
E-mail: admin@dcsconsulting.ca
Frequently Asked Questions
- How much does a safety consultant charge?
Pricing depends on the nature of the work, what type of professional qualifications are required to do the work, where the work can be done (e.g. on our office or is it on your site), how much travel is required and a lot of other factors. DCS Safety Consulting regularly benchmarks rates to other safety professionals to ensure we are competitive. We are not the most costly, but nor are we the least costly. For projects with a clear scope we provided fixed, all-in pricing to ensure you know up front about exactly how much it will cost. Please contact use and we would be more than happy to provide pricing for your specific project.
- What do safety consultants do?
Professional safety consultants provide a wide variety of services. Typically consultants are not first aid attendants and do not provide emergency services. We are safety specialists and experts in safety systems, are invited in by companies and provide professional advice, mentorship, recommendations and other services. Examples include:
- Work with companies to improve safety culture.
- Develop written safety programs and materials such as policies, safe work procedures, exposure controls plans, forms and pretty much any other safety related documentation.
- Help companies identify hazards, controls and overall work to reduce risk of incidents and accidents at the workplace.
- Work with companies to find solutions to orders from WorkSafeBC.
- Acts as experts for incident investigations, WorkSafeBC claims and other.
- Provide training.
- Perform safety program audits to ensure your safety program is consistent with legal and company requirements.
- Work with companies to develop strategic safety plans and annual goals and objectives.
- Confined space assessments.
- DCS Safety consulting also provides an ongoing subscription service to be your company’s Safety Advisor or Safety Manager (we prefer Advisor). We fulfill the role of your company safety specialist and work with your employees to ensure the safety program is meeting company needs.
- Anything you think relates to safety, we can probably help you out.
- Does a safety consultant come on-site?
Yes! If you need or want us to come to your site for any reason, we will be there, but we don’t always have to come to site to help you out or work with you. Need a new written policy or procedure? We can probably do that for you from our offices. Do you want a safety professional’s opinion on how to control a certain hazard on site or need confined space assessments completed? Those are activities we need to do on site.
- How effective are safety consultants?
No consultants are a silver bullet to any issue and safety consultants are no different. Effectiveness of consultants depends on a range of factors including ‘fit’ between the company and the consultant, pricing, clarity of scope and deliverables of the project (e.g. do you know what you want?) and availability. Consultants are only effective if the company sees value in the recommendations and services provided by the consultant and has the resources, willingness and support, especially management support, to implement the recommendations. So, if your company is willing to change and wants to work with the professionals from DCS Safety Consulting then we will most certainly be effective. We stake our reputation on it and want to work with you!
- What is meant by a. “Culture of Safety”?
We like to think of a culture of safety as the attitude and feelings of groups and individuals towards safety. Is an open attitude towards “doing things safely” accepted? Is it mocked? Does management lead by example and demonstrate that safety is important or do they present a “do as I say, not as I do” leadership style? Do people choose to slow down a bit and figure out something and come up with a plan before tackling the job or do they rush in to “just get it done”. Is “safety” ticking the boxes and doing the paperwork just so you can get to work or is safety a genuine, deliberate consideration and part of the plan of work. Is safety thought of as the responsibility of someone else or is safety though of as a responsibility of each person and all as a group. All these determine the safety culture of an organization, group, crew or individual.
If the workplace accepts shortcuts, lack of reporting and does not hold people accountable for safety performance, then it is indicative a weak culture of safety is present. If people are held accountable for their own safety performance, are expected to contribute and participate meaningfully in the safety program and management demonstrably leads by example then it is indicative there is a strong culture of safety.
- What is “safety culture”?
See above.
- What is a safety audit?
A safety audit is an evaluation of the effectiveness and efficiency of the safety management system or health and safety program. In regards to the WorkSafeBC Partners Programs, a Certificate of Recognition (COR) is provided to organizations that successfully pass the audit. In the simplest terms a COR audit does a couple things:
- evaluates the organizations safety program to determine if policies and procedures required are in place and meet audit requirements
- then compares company records to evaluate how well the company is meeting their own specified requirements.
Since 2008, DCS Safety Consulting has completed over 350 COR audits for 5 different Certifying Partners in healthcare, construction, forestry, mining, local and regional government, trucking and aviation.