Published 10 Jul 2023
What is a Management of Change Template?
A Management of Change (MOC) template is a tool that businesses can use before implementing any significant change in their workplace. It guides safety officers in identifying potential safety and occupational risks that come with enforcing the proposed change. A comprehensive management of change template helps organizations minimize potential negative impacts, create adequate and timely measures, and establish that the proposed change is indeed worth doing.
In this article
- What is MOC?
- Changes That Trigger an MOC
- Tips on How to Successfully Implement Management of Change
- What to Include in a Management of Change Template
- FAQs About Management of Change
- Conduct Effective MOC with a Digital Tool
- Best Management of Change (MOC) Templates
What is MOC?
Management of Change is the process of determining and controlling occupational health and safety risks brought about by changes in an organization. Implementing changes in the workplace without conducting an MOC can compromise workplace safety and jeopardize compliance with legal requirements (OSHA 1910.119) and industry standards (ISO 45001) on occupational health and safety.
Management of Change is also reflected in various requirements for ISO 9001 or the quality management system. Some of these requirements include control of changes, operational control, and planning of changes, among others.
Changes That Trigger an MOC
Organizational changes are implemented occasionally for reasons such as production efficiency and streamlining of processes. Changes, however, can pose risks to employees if they are implemented without conducting an MOC. Here are some examples of changes in the workplace that can trigger the need to perform an MOC:
Physical
These can be engineering or physical changes that include new or modified equipment, a new or renovated facility, and process chemicals that can pose new safety risks that need to be evaluated.
Operations
Changes to how work is done or employees are managed will need to be assessed for possible new risks. New Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), changes to maintenance safety checks, new technology, or changes brought by reorganization need to be considered for new risks.
Personnel
Changes to staffing, training for employees, and other changes that will impact the safe execution of tasks should be evaluated before implementation.
Tips on How to Successfully Implement Management of Change
Since the primary reason for doing an MOC is to assess and confirm if a change in the business process will be welcomed and beneficial, the process itself should also be done carefully. All important details should be laid out and addressed so that no critical aspects are missed and that businesses come up with a credible resolution for the initiative.
Here are the top tips on how to effectively implement an MOC procedure:
Assess the proposed change from different perspectives
Collect as much information as you can, be as inclusive as possible, and don’t just focus on one or two voices in the organization. Changes can appear differently based on personal biases and individual goals, so looking at the effects of changes from various perspectives can help devise a fair and reasonable outcome.
Prioritize your people
Gather feedback from employees, especially those that will be directly affected by the change. If, by the end of doing the MOC, you’ve determined that there could be a significant negative impact on the organization or the people, specifically safety issues, don’t push through with the proposed change.
Don’t compromise safety, no matter how big the surface rewards may be. After all, you can only really say an endeavor is successful if there’s no lasting detrimental effect on the people and the business.
Utilize ready-to-use checklists or templates
A lot of information is required when doing an MOC so it’s best to leverage tools such as checklists that can hold all these data in one safe place. Deploying digital checklists, particularly, provide authorized stakeholders with a shared overview of the value and status of a proposed change.
Using a management of change template also allows for easy monitoring and efficient tracking for future reference.
What to Include in a Management of Change Template
Aside from the primary details like the name of the facility, location of the site, name of the change initiator, description and area of the proposed change, and targetted date and time of implementation, a good management of change template should ideally include a review of following items:
- Engineering
- Operating and Design
- Quality
- Operating Personnel
- External Personnel
- Regulations, Standards, or Code of Practice
- Suppliers, Community, and/or Client/User
- Other
- Completion
Since a management of change initiative is not limited to the above aspects, businesses can further customize their own templates according to their needs.
FAQs About Management of Change
Although there’s no hard distinction between the two, the main difference between them is that while management of change is often used to deal with technical changes in the organization, change management focuses more on the people side of things by equipping and supporting them to achieve a specific goal.
Risk assessment is used to evaluate whether a specific risk will have a significant impact on a proposed change. It can be considered a vital factor in the management of change, similar to other business approaches that deal with possible shifts in any process.
MOC aims to ensure that any changes are managed in a systematic way to minimize risk and maximize benefits. Performing this practice also provides organizations an assurance that proposed changes are thoroughly evaluated, properly planned, and consider people’s safety before they are fully implemented.
Conduct Effective MOC with a Digital Tool
Performing an MOC helps maintain a safe working environment and keeps businesses compliant with the law. Technology in the form of a powerful inspection app like SafetyCulture can help safety officers effectively conduct an MOC and accomplish the following:
- Organize documentation of changes and customize templates to fit business needs
- Assess risks, flag them as issues, and categorize them according to the level of priority
- Assign corrective actions with deadlines to immediately address safety risks
- Generate and export MOC reports, then share them in formats of a web link, PDF, CSV, or Word
- Leverage SafetyCulture’s Analytics to help safety officers continuously monitor safety trends across the organization
Best Management of Change (MOC) Templates
MOC - Safety Review Checklist
This MOC safety review checklist can be used to review minor changes in the organization and ensure that changes implemented in the workplace are safe.
Management of Change Form Template
A management of change form needs to be signed by all signatories to confirm approval of change/s being implemented. Safety officers can customize this template to contain the list of documentation needed to safely implement changes.
Pre-Startup Safety review (PSSR) Checklist
A PSSR checklist is used when determining the safety of a new or modified facility or equipment before commissioning. Use this digital PSSR checklist during MOC and feel free to customize according to your business needs.
Risk Assessment Template
A risk assessment checklist is used whenever there is a new equipment, substance, or procedure in the workplace. It can be used during MOC to help safety officers uncover potential risks and come up with control measures that can eliminate or reduce the risks brought by changes in the workplace.
Bonus! Incident Report Form
An incident report form helps safety officers create and submit incident reports. Use collected data of incident reports to identify usual causes of work-related incidents and determine mitigation.
Change Management Procedure Checklist
A change management template allows organizations to summarize proposed process changes and monitor them within a centralized location. Project managers, safety officers, and other supervising personnel can customize this template, also known as Management of Change (MOC) Process Template or change management plan template—to add the specific modifications in the business, ensure that they are properly documented, and justify the need for change.
