Jesse Brazzell, CHST
Manager Safety Services
Safety Management Group
What and Why
Nearly every safety professional will tell you that the most effective safety efforts are those that involve participants from throughout the company or the specific facility or jobsite. While it’s rarely practical to gather everyone together for every decision regarding safety, developing a safety committee will help you reap many of the same benefits.
Broadly stated, a safety committee has two overall missions: to act as a conduit for delivering safety information to the entire workforce, and to provide a channel for feedback and suggestions from the workers. The specifics of each committee depend on the project itself and personalities and skills of those who serve on it.
Some companies and managers view safety as a top-down concept. Management sets out the rules, and the workers are expected to follow without question. But without buy-in from the workers, those rules are likely to create dissension and lead to bigger problems – or prove to be inappropriate in real-world situations.
That’s why a safety committee should include all levels of people within a company, from hourly workers to upper management. While you don’t want committees to become so large that they make meetings and decision-making impossible, it’s important to achieve that representation of people throughout the company or worksite.
Involving those who will be expected to follow the rules ensures that what may sound good in the executive office is actually practical and beneficial at the worksite. For example, management may react to an increase in claims for hand injuries by mandating that workers throughout a plant or at a construction site wear gloves. However, workers in some roles or areas may be able to point out that gloves will have such a negative effect on their dexterity that they make actually create bigger hazards.
Having a safety committee gives you a planned, practical way to address such issues. Instead of dictating the need for gloves, management’s representatives to the committee could make everyone aware of the increase in claims and ask everyone to bring ideas to the next meeting. It may be that the claims are actually the result of unsafe work practices or equipment that isn’t properly protected. Or, most workers may see gloves as beneficial, and those who don’t may be able to offer an alternate solution.
In any case, involving all the committee members in discussions like these creates solutions that are more likely to be accepted and followed than top-down decisions. Just as important, involving representatives from throughout the company sends a very clear message that safety is a company-wide priority.
Once a committee is formed (and I’ll talk more about composition in the next part of this series), its first goal should be to define its mission and vision. Again, a collaborative process will be more effective and meaningful than handing the members a list of responsibilities. The mission and vision will be slightly different with each committee, but it nearly always will focus on creating a safer working environment for all of the employees, on reducing injuries and illnesses, and on improving communication about safety throughout the organization.
One technique that works well is to talk a little about mission and vision at the first meeting, and to send participants home with an assignment to bring their ideas to the second session. That way, members are more likely to begin the process with thoughtful ideas. It may take a little longer, but ultimately, the results will more than justify any additional time and effort.
Who and How
In the first part of this series, we talked about the importance of having a safety committee to act as a conduit for delivering safety information to the entire workforce, and to provide a channel for feedback and suggestions from the workers.
The first step in making a safety committee work most effectively is making sure that it has the right members. As we noted, the most productive committees include participants from throughout the company or the specific jobsite, with members representing levels from hourly workers to upper management.
In companies or worksites with fewer than 100 workers, you can generally obtain the best results from committees of no more than seven members. Even when worksites become much larger, it’s good to keep the committee at a manageable size to ensure that all of the participants feel that they are really making contributions.
While it’s possible to select the members of the committee through some kind of democratic process such an election, the most effective committees are usually those for which participants are carefully selected. The goal is not to ensure that the owner or manager’s viewpoint dominates the discussion. Instead, it’s to make sure the people sitting on the committee will be good representatives who will be respected by the workers.
Who should make the selection? That’s different for every company. At some companies, the safety director and the president may make the choices. At others, it may be the operations manager or department heads. A collaborative approach works better for other companies. The best choice is whoever is ultimately responsible for safety within the company. It’s also a good idea to have someone from upper management involved as a visible sign that the company is truly committed to safety and the committee approach.
Every manager can identify good-natured people who bring a healthy attitude to work and treat their co-workers well. Ideally, those people will make up the bulk of your committee. However, for the sake of balance – and to ensure that the workers see the committee as legitimate representatives of their interests – it’s also a good idea to choose some members who have a reputation for being skeptical, or for questioning others’ viewpoints. If the resident cynics support a policy, other workers may be more willing to embrace it. A combination of both personality types tends to work best.
Before you approach specific candidates for the committee, be ready to answer their questions. They’ll want to know where and how often the committee is likely is to meet, and what expectations management has for the group. Most people will be honored to have been asked, as long as they have a good sense of what’s involved. It may be that some candidates may not be comfortable with the role, or that their work may force them to miss meetings. Give them the opportunity to turn you down. After all, a participant who is hesitant or who really doesn’t want to be there isn’t going to do anyone any good.
Give thought to the term of service, too. It’s a good idea to appoint members for a set amount of time, and to rotate positions so that members only need to commit for a year or so at a time. Rotating members is also a way to head off hard feelings about not being selected. If workers know that they may be asked six months or a year down the road, there won’t be as much resentment. You may also want to stagger members’ terms so there are no drastic changes at any one time.
Finally, be sure that any representatives from management do not dominate the meetings. It’s a natural tendency for company leaders to assume leadership roles in committee meetings, but that can be counterproductive. Workers may believe that the committee is a sham, or that management isn’t really interested in their ideas or involvement. Management representatives should take a deep breath, let the other participants account for most of the discussions, and listen carefully to both what’s said and how workers say it. Doing that offers the potential to gain a great deal of valuable insight.
Preventing Pitfalls
Safety committees can be very effective channels for delivering safety information to the entire workforce, and for encouraging feedback and suggestions from the workers. But some of the most well-intentioned safety committees fall far short of management’s expectations – usually for one of several common reasons. By better understanding the potential pitfalls and taking steps to prevent them, your company can ensure that your safety committee will be more effective and have better prospects for success.
Clear roadmap. Successful committees have clear missions, achievable visions – and well-thought-out agendas. I can’t overstate the importance of having an agenda and sticking to it. Setting a time limit is important, too. Keeping the meeting to an hour or less is the best way to head off the common problem of meetings that drag on forever and accomplish little in the process. It also minimizes the chance that committee members will feel that their time is being wasted.
Solid focus. Safety committees typically cover a wide array of issues, so they have to be careful that they don’t get bogged down by a single matter that consumes far too much time. For example, if the safety committee determines that an incentive plan would be a good idea, they shouldn’t devote hours and hours to working out the finer points. Instead, they could ask the company’s HR staff to explore the idea, or set up a subcommittee to bring it to life. Taking a high-level approach in meetings makes the best use of members’ time and energy.
Convenient location. A meeting site that isn’t convenient for all of the participants discourages active participation. The most effective committees are those that rotate meeting sites so that all members have the opportunity to have meetings that are convenient for them. That also adds some variety and allows members to see work environments that are different from theirs. (If that’s the case, you may also want to set aside some time at each meeting for a brief tour of the site.) Having the meeting at the corporate office makes it far too easy for the company’s representatives to be dragged out of the meeting to solve that hour’s crisis.
Real-world examples. The committee can try to understand a particular safety challenge, but they’ll be more effective if they can get a firsthand look it. Take fall protection. It’s possible for the committee to talk about harnesses and lanyards in an office, but the discussion is much more likely to be beneficial if the members are at a site where fall protection is needed, and they can see how it will be used (or how it can be misused). Another effective strategy is to encourage the committee to perform walk-throughs to identify potential safety infractions. When the members spot shortcomings on other parts of the site, they’ll pay more attention to what happens in their own areas.
Communicate consistently. Since your committee is a channel between those responsible for safety and those who are being protected, set up mechanisms for two-way communication. Keep workers informed about what the committee is discussing and what decisions it has made. Publicize the names and locations of committee members, so that workers can approach them with concerns or ideas. Post committee minutes or summaries on bulletin boards.
Celebrate successes. Being on a committee is hard work, and it’s easy to lose sight of successes. That’s why it’s a good idea to take time to recognize and take credit for successful outcomes. If one of the goals was lowering injuries, and the current quarter’s level is well below the previous quarter, make a point of it. Communicate it to the workers, too, because it will strengthen the committee’s reputation. Remember, nothing breeds success like success.