Every month, PrioCom puts a profession in the spotlight and explains how business and mission-critical communication contributes to the safety of employees and efficiency in business operations.

The KAM (QHSE) manager has an important function in an organisation: the role of both stimulator, initiator, controller and coordinator with regard to KAM topics and developments within the company. The KAM manager is also responsible for creating support for quality, occupational health, occupational safety and the environment. The KAM manager acts as a bridge between employees and management.

The position requires the officer to be able to communicate well with both management and employees and other stakeholders within the organisation.
The most important tasks are setting up, controlling and improving the KAM care system and that business activities in the field of Quality, Health & Safety and Environment run as smoothly as possible. Related tasks are, among others:
– Initiating the KAM-policy
– Carrying out internal and/or external audits
– Analysing and identifying risks
– Executing quality controls
– Advising and sparring with the management
– Formulating improvement plans

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The KAM care system also guarantees that the company is able to respond effectively to calamities and that the emergency service is properly organised. The basic principle is a system in which activities are carried out systematically, according to established policy. The activities are then checked to see whether they have been effective and have contributed sufficiently to the realisation of the KAM policy. If necessary, improvement activities are implemented or the policy is adjusted.

The main activities of the KAM manager/coordinator consist of proposing and implementing (or having implemented) improvements based on legal changes, risk inventories, improvement proposals and complaints from stakeholders, progressive insight and gaps in the system. The KAM coordinator is also responsible for testing compliance with the system (internal and external audits, workplace inspections, measurement and monitoring of data). The results are reported to the management, often with recommendations for improvement. The KAM coordinator also maintains contacts with the company’s stakeholders in the field of KAM.

The KAM-manager/coordinator must be given a mandate by the board of directors to be able to function effectively. Without a mandate, creating support within the organisation is a hopeless task.
The answer to the question; how valuable is the role of KAM-manager, is certainly answered when a calamity or industrial accident has occurred.

As the saying “prevention is better than cure” indicates, a preventive approach is better than clearing up the shards after the incident. And that is why every organisation should allocate budget and mandate to the KAM care system and its officers.

There is no rule of thumb on what % of turnover should be spent on KAM activities. Around Marketing and ICT such percentages are more common; marketing is easily 10% and ICT 6% of annual turnover. From the various discussions with KAM-managers, an average of 3% of the annual turnover is a budget that is worked with, but differs greatly per organisation.
Everyone considers a safe working environment important, followed by good quality and then the environment. PrioCom applies a number of important rules of thumb for this:
1. Reliability
Does the communication always have to work? PrioCom offers guaranteed communication through priority on the network.
2. Mobility
We offer geographical independence and mission-critical national communications with the T-Mobile Network. With our Push-To-Talk solution we can communicate regionally, nationally or in Europe.
3. Efficiency
Alarm, voice connection and direct messaging on one device, is that possible? Besides the Push-To-Talk function on our robust Android devices, you can also use handy business applications to digitalise the workflows. For example, to request documents or to send stock data and permits digitally.
4. Security
How secure are your employees and is there already a company- or mission critical communication national mobile network in your organisation? PrioCom offers the safest national mission critical communication possible in the Netherlands. Through a protected part of the T-Mobile network, data is protected from public internet, emergency calls get priority on the network and both connection and data are encrypted.

What are your experiences and what is your vision on the KAM care system? Curious what this could mean for your organisation? These are just four examples, so please click on our link to read the extensive version with the nine certainties of the PrioCom Compass