Ensuring that a lab is safe for the staff, stakeholders, vendors, and visitors is an important responsibility. Safety management is critical because people’s lives and well-being are at stake. People are the most important asset of any lab—everything the lab accomplishes is driven by the staff. Keeping them healthy is key to the lab’s success. Although the lab manager is ultimately accountable for lab safety, the responsibility for leading safety initiatives may be delegated to a lab safety manager or assigned to senior scientists, depending on the lab's size and scope. 

Lab safety is not obvious and won’t simply occur; it is a program that must have a champion(s) who will manage safety with purpose. Even though scientists in the lab have significant experience doing their experiments properly and safely, being responsible for all the different safety components of the lab requires additional training. That training needs to cover the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to be successful in the role, which  covers a broad range of topics including technical safety knowledge, risk management, compliance, and developing a culture of safety for the lab. 

Lab Safety Management Certificate

The Lab Safety Management certificate is more than training—it’s a professional advantage.

Gain critical skills and IACET-approved CEUs that make a measurable difference.

Safety management

Safety management is not an inherent function of lab work. Safety is something that needs to be learned, practiced, and improved. Most scientists are focused on the results of their experiments, not on examining potential risks and hazards. The chemical industry has done an excellent job of raising expectations about lab safety driven by early pioneers like DuPont and Air Products. These companies developed cultures of safety that drove the expectation that every staff member would go home as healthy as they arrived. They developed detailed processes around risk management, hazard review and containment, staff training, and safety management. 

One of the key lessons of effective safety management is the establishment of safety manager roles. These folks have the responsibility to ensure that a wide variety of safety activities are assigned to individuals, completed, and reviewed. Some of the key activities include, but are not limited to, managing risk assessment and mitigation, executing appropriate hazard control, ensuring staff have the needed safety training, collecting and archiving safety documentation, buying and distributing required personal protective equipment (PPE), updating safety processes and protocols, and clearly communicating about hazards, risks, and responsibilities. 

Lab safety is not obvious and won’t simply occur; it is a program that must have a champion(s) who will manage safety with purpose.

Assigning key safety responsibilities to safety managers ensures that experiments, instruments, equipment, and processes are thoroughly evaluated and reviewed by lab staff before use. It also provides a key resource for lab staff to consult about observations, issues, conflicts, and new safety needs. 

Skills required

Effective safety management requires specific knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA) to be competent in the role. The knowledge required will extend beyond their specific technical expertise to a broader understanding of the lab’s hazard types, degrees, and groupings. They will need to understand a wide range of lab hazards and apply effective strategies to address issues like flammability, corrosivity, reactivity, and toxicity. They will need sufficient knowledge to make effective decisions about hazards, dangers, and risk, and be able to apply the hazard control hierarchy with confidence.

With this broader technical understanding, lab safety managers need to develop skills to apply this knowledge effectively. There are four necessary key skill areas:

• Recognition – effectively identify potential hazards and risks. Be able to assess the level of risk that lab staff are likely to face.
• Systemization – drive processes and protocols that apply effective risk mitigation and safety practices throughout the lab’s operations. Enable everyone to participate in the safety program.
• Implementation – drive the effective use of the hierarchy of hazard controls to remove hazards and reduce risk. Ensure that PPE is the last line of defense to keep staff safe. 
• Decision-making – make good decisions to implement risk reduction measures. Be willing and able to make hard or unpopular decisions to help keep staff safe.

One of the most important abilities is to convert the knowledge and skills acquired into a safety-first attitude. This involves being proactive and shifting from a safety compliance approach to a risk assessment program to grow a culture of safety. The best safety managers  focus on leading indicators over lagging indicators and drive a people-based safety culture. 

For lab managers looking to develop safety experts in their labs, the best first step is to focus on people who already show a safety-first attitude. People who have the right attitude around safety can readily be trained and upskilled. However, no amount of training will help someone who is lacking that focus. It might not be the most senior or experienced scientists who are the best candidates for the role of safety manager. It is more likely to be the one who cares the most.

For lab managers looking to develop safety experts in their labs, the best first step is to focus on people who already show a safety-first attitude.

Training options

Individuals wishing to advance their safety management abilities can learn in four overarching categories:

• People-based – learn directly from others who have relevant KSAs. This can range from simple questions and answers to more involved interactions like networking, mentoring, and shadowing. Mentoring can be especially important because it shares tacit knowledge like how to be successful and how to overcome resistance.
• Training and education – take formal and informal training courses to improve knowledge and skills. These cover a wide range including academic classes, workshops, courses, webinars, and conferences.
• Work experience – participate in the safety program in the lab by attending meetings, activities, and events. It can also extend to learning from other labs by participating in their safety events.
• Self-driven – individual improvement through reading, practice, and inquiry. This individual approach can fill in the gaps around the more formal training options.

Action plan

As the lab manager, it is important to assess your own level of understanding of safety management. While you might delegate responsibility for safety, you can never delegate accountability. If you do develop a safety manager, they will lean on you for support. 

Do a self-assessment of your safety management KSAs. Identify your strengths and any gaps. Get feedback from trusted scientists in the lab about your safety attitude. Are you progressing toward a culture of safety? For any important gaps, identify what actions you can take to improve. Choose the appropriate learning mechanism that will deliver on your needs and is consistent with your approach to adult learning.

Unfortunately, the lab manager role is large and dynamic. Prioritize the most important areas of improvement. Develop an action plan to address these needs with a schedule and objective measures of success.