Organizations with safety committees often have better accident records, lower operating costs, fewer lost workdays, and lower workers’ comp claims. This Friday, our Safety Training Tips columnist focuses on what you need to know about them. (See also the notice of a special April 1 BLR audio conference on committees at the end of the article.)
How do safety committees help? Safety committees can perform a number of essential functions:
- Accident investigation
- Safety inspections
- Hazard identification, including job hazard analysis
- Reporting safety problems to management and recommending corrective action
- Communicating safety and health policies to employees
- Assisting in safety training and selecting training materials
- Helping to develop and manage safety incentive programs and suggestion systems
- Serving as role models for safe attitudes and practices
Don’t miss BLR’s April 1 special audio conference on how to form or improve a safety committee. Your satisfaction is assured. Can’t attend? Pre-order the CD. Click for details.
This is by no means a complete list. You can assign more, fewer, or different functions to your committee. Often the committee itself participates in selecting its activities. Although the overall goals of all safety committees are accident and cost reduction, there are frequently such desirable side effects as increased job satisfaction and morale and decreased absenteeism and grievances.
How do they work?
Typically, management and employees each select their own members for a safety committee. Generally, the committee is composed of an equal number of management personnel and employees. There should be enough members to carry out various assigned functions, but not so many that it’s difficult to conduct meetings. All shifts should be represented. In addition, the safety manager is usually involved. It’s also a good idea to have a manager with budgetary authority on the committee so that resources can be allocated and committee recommendations implemented.
Once the members have been selected, the committee selects a chair and decides on the procedure for periodically rotating the leadership role. Regular meetings of the committee should be scheduled at frequent intervals, complete with agendas that include planned activities, reports on previous actions, and follow-ups. Meeting minutes should be kept and distributed to all members and other key people in the organization.
Announcing BLR’s special April 1 audio conference on safety committees. Don’t form (or run) a committee without it! Satisfaction assured! Can’t attend? Pre-order the CD. Click for info.
How can you ensure success? The make–up of your committee is as important as its structure and goals. Experts say it’s not enough to select safety committee members based on availability or popularity. Safety committees require hard work, diligence, interest, and knowledge on the part of members. Characteristics of successful safety committee members include:
- Commitment to workplace safety
- Concern for co-workers
- Leadership qualities
- Ability to work cooperatively with co-workers and management
Other strategies for success include:
- Choosing the right employees and making sure that every member wants and deserves to be there.
- Rotating leadership and responsibility for the agenda among members.
- Avoiding making a decision just to get an item off the table. Stay with issues until you come up with a solution that has a strong chance of succeeding.
- Admitting mistakes—there’s nothing wrong with trial and error.
- Monitoring new policies and procedures to be sure they work. If they don’t, change them!
- Assigning individual members specific projects with follow-up responsibility.
- Making communication with employees, management, and committee members a priority.
- Never forgetting that the ultimate goal of the committee is a safe, healthy work environment.
Special Note: If you wish to form a safety committee, or have one and would like to improve it, BLR plans a special 90-minute audio conference on the subject for Tuesday, April 1. The conference is titled, Safety Committees: How to Develop, Implement and Maintain an Effective Program That Works for You, Not Against You. This conference was first given in January, to rave reviews, and may be one of the best presentations on the subject around. Be sure not to miss it. And if you can’t attend, be sure to pre-order the CD. To register, pre-order the CD, or for more detailed info, click one of the ordering links on this page.