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Risk management facilitators undergo accreditation process

2nd May 2014

By: David Oliveira

Creamer Media Staff Writer

  

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The Global Minerals Industry Risk Management (G-MIRM) accreditation course for G-MIRM facilitators was held in February over four-and-a-half days in Melrose Arch, Johannesburg, facilitated by mining solutions provider JKTech.

The G-MIRM programme has four levels. Executives who attend the two-day Level 4 course, G4, gain insight into risk types, risk assessment methods and strategic understanding. They also learn how these methods can be applied to their companies’ organisational goals and are given the support required to assist them in getting their organisations to begin the safety maturity journey in both safety thinking and culture.

The G3-level workshop aims to increase managers’ understanding and application of risk assessment, which would, in turn, improves their decisions that affect organisational safety.

Managers who attend the G-MIRM course and pass the knowledge assessment will ultimately be able to determine the quality of risk-management activities and systems at a company, as well as evaluate risk assessments by comparing them with best practice. In essence, changing the way risk-based decisions are made.

Meanwhile, the two-and-a-half-day G2-level course targets company supervisors. Those who pass the skills assessment will develop competence in a range of areas, including the implementation of the four-layered approach to safety risk management.

After the one-day G1-level course, which anyone in an organisation can attend, attendees undergo a skills assessment to determine competence in several fields, including the ability to conduct a personal stop, look, assess and manage (SLAM) risk assessment allowing for personal planning skills.

Risk management consultancy TLP Consulting principal consultant and G-MIRM facilitator Terence Parker explains that the four-layered approach is designed to create an understanding of risks associated with the different functions of an organisation.

“At layer one, a baseline risk assessment is compiled to identify and prioritise potential major unwanted events and establish critical controls. These events are then analysed in more detail in layer two, and controls related to critical activities are clearly defined, incorporating safe operating procedures. Layers three and four are influenced by people’s behaviour when following procedures and conducting the layer-four personal-risk assessment technique SLAM,” he explains.

Meanwhile, Parker highlights that G-MIRM employs the Journey analysis model, which determines the maturity of an organisation regarding safety, health and environmental risks.

“We teach people to assess their own organisation in terms of organisational maturity using six people elements and 17 system elements. We also teach them to improve organisational maturity regarding all these elements,” says Parker.

G-MIRM lead facilitator and JKTech risk and sustainability manager for Africa Carl Marx adds: “The key to successfully implementing the G-MIRM programme is for companies to be proactive and not react after a safety incident has taken place or the environment has been harmed. By understanding the different approaches and models that comprise the G-MIRM programme, people can make proactive decisions regarding risk.”

Human resources and safety consultancy Fortitudo Consulting Services consultant and G-MIRM facilitator Janeen Ferguson highlights the importance of the individual in successfully implementing risk management processes in an organisation.

“Obtaining a clear understanding of human error and the part it plays in risk management is critical to the successful design and implementation of a risk management system in an organisation. The G-MIRM programme facilitates an understanding of human error, how to place controls for human error and how to incorporate this understanding into the risk process,” says Ferguson.

The course is led by the University of Queensland’s Sustainable Minerals Institute (SMI), in Australia, and supported by the universities of the Witwatersrand, Pretoria and Cape Town, in South Africa.

G-MIRM was developed by SMI in conjunction with mining giant Anglo American in 2007 and has been implemented by several other mining houses worldwide through SMI’s commercial arm JKTech.

Edited by Samantha Herbst
Creamer Media Deputy Editor

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