VPP mock audit offers insight into Hanscom program

  • Published
  • By Rhonda Siciliano
  • 66th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
HANSCOM AFB, Mass. --  The results of Hanscom's Voluntary Protection Program mock audit were briefed to senior leaders April 11.

The mock audit was the first of its kind in the Air Force with the purpose of assessing Hanscom's VPP implementation and to determine readiness for the official Occupational Safety and Health Administration VPP site visit. Hanscom underwent an initial assessment in June of 2006 when it first established its program.

"We appreciate the assistance that Lt. Col. Weisman and his team have provided in getting us into the final steps of the process towards achieving OSHA certification," said Col. Tom Schluckebier, 66th Air Base Wing commander. "There has been significant progress in advancing our program towards Star certification, but there is still work to be accomplished and we're going to need everyone's help to get there."

The mock audit team led by Lt. Col. Wade Weisman from the Secretary of the Air Force's office of Installations, Environment and Logistics highlighted some of the "Star" areas of Hanscom's program.

"Hanscom's creativity in establishing an electronic tool on the Center Net to report hazards that is both easy to use and results in correcting the hazard impressed the entire team," Colonel Weisman said. "We also saw a very strong core team that included active involvement from the union; this team will be key to successfully completing the next steps toward VPP recognition."

Among the other elements that were given "Star" points by the inspection team were: weekly VPP emails to educate and remind personnel of important VPP elements; a comprehensive unit safety representative inspection process; engaged VPP marketing program; use of electronic media such as the VPP 101 online training tool and Wingman Software tool; in addition to strong health and safety considerations at the Fitness and Sports Center.

Colonel Weisman briefed the team's observations and offered recommendations on the way ahead for Hanscom's program in order to best prepare for and successfully navigate an OSHA inspection.

"We've made a lot of advances in our VPP, and that was evident in the out brief presentation, but we still have some areas to work on before we invite OSHA in to inspect us," said Rolen Johns, 66th Air Base Wing Safety Office.

One of the areas the audit team found in need of additional focus was utilizing information gathered from the Hazard Report tool to develop trend analysis data to determine any problem areas that need to be addressed and to enhance mishap reporting. The audit team recommended that trends gathered from the information collection be used in developing goals and objectives.

"The Hazard Report button is a great tool and we're pleased that the audit team recognized that. We encourage people to continue to utilize it to report hazards; it's simple and convenient," Colonel Schluckebier said.

Some of the items the audit team recommended for Hanscom's VPP included signed leadership VPP commitment letters for each of the wings; safety and occupational health goals and objectives for all organizations that are communicated to personnel and progress is tracked; job safety analysis for non-routine tasks such as snow removal, snow blower use, and shop level equipment including information on preventive maintenance to further enhance safety.

"We will take what we learned from this audit and begin making adjustments to our program to ensure that we have what it takes to become Star certified," Mr. Johns said.
"It's a complete team effort to make this happen, so we continue to ask for everyone to stay engaged and active in promoting VPP so that together we can maintain a safe and healthy workplace."