By Roger Paveza, Vista Safety and Johnny Zitko, AssuredPartners

Safety and health committees can be a very important part of an employer’s safety program. 

Here are a few tips for making your safety and health committee more effective in achieving the goals of providing a safe workplace and reducing workers’ compensation costs: 

Establish a strong management commitment

A safety committee will fail if there is not a strong commitment to safety on the part of top management. Management must sincerely want the employees’ input. They must be committed to taking action on the recommendations of the committee. Top management must ensure that all levels of management and supervisory personnel exhibit a commitment to safety. This commitment must be communicated in words and deeds to all employees. 

Establish a clear purpose & set goals 

The committee should have a clearly defined purpose. Will your committee confine its activities to workplace safety, or will it be expanded to include the safety of customers or guests, environmental issues, security, fleet safety, disaster control and recovery, etc.? Members should know exactly what their duties and responsibilities are. Goals should be set, such as a goal to reduce the number or frequency of accidents to a specific level or to reduce workers’ compensation costs by a certain amount. Periodically measure the committee’s progress in achieving the goals. 

Focus on significant hazards and loss sources 

Focus on those hazards, work practices, behaviors or other loss sources that have caused or are likely to cause a significant accident or injury. Many committees focus on minor issues or on regulatory issues (“OSHA says”) and fail to address the issues that are the real problem. They spend most of their time discussing the safety incentive program instead of determining that most of the loss costs have been related to back injuries, strains/sprains, and manual material handling and looking for ways to prevent those accidents. 

Choose members who are interested in safety 

Committee members should want to be on the committee. Ask for volunteers. If there are not enough volunteers, choose employees who have shown an interest in safety or made suggestions in the past and “sell” them on becoming a member of the committee. If it is difficult to find employees who want to be on the committee, it probably means that the employees don’t believe that management is really committed to it and are afraid of wasting their time. You have your work cut out for you and must demonstrate that management is serious about wanting the employees’ input. 

Make attendance mandatory 

Members should know that attendance is mandatory. If they have an approved reason for being unable to attend, they should be required to send a suitable substitute. Meetings should not have to be canceled or postponed because not enough people show up. 

Require active participation by each member 

Remove members from the committee if they contribute nothing. “Go around the table” at every meeting and require each member to provide input. After a few times of having nothing to contribute, they should get the idea that they are expected to come to the meeting with their own ideas or with ideas and input from other employees. 

Encourage input from all employees 

All employees should be encouraged to provide ideas and input to committee members. The committee members should act as a liaison for the other employees to communicate potentially unsafe conditions and unsafe work practices to management. The employees who actually do the work are often in the best position to identify potential problems and to suggest possible corrective actions that can be taken to prevent accidents. 

Have an agenda and follow it 

There should be an agenda for each meeting to keep the meeting on track. A typical agenda might include the following: 

• Take attendance 
• Call meeting to order 
• Approve minutes of last meeting 
• Old business (update status of all action items) 
• Review accidents/claims since last meeting & adequacy of corrective actions 
• Results of safety inspections 
• New business (input from members and other employees) 
• Adjourn 

Hold meetings at the same time on the same day every time 

A good way to “kill” a committee is to constantly change the time of the meetings to suit one or more members. By holding the meetings at the same time on the same day (e.g., second Tuesday of every month), members can plan ahead and there should be no excuse for people not being able to attend. 

Take action on committee recommendations 

This is critical. Every recommendation should be followed up and corrective action taken. If management cannot take action on a recommendation for economic or other reasons, they should explain the reasons to the committee and take some alternate action, if possible. If this is not done, the members will become frustrated and disillusioned and their interest will diminish. 

Assign action items and require follow-up 

Nothing gets done unless it is someone’s direct responsibility to get it done! Every action item should be assigned to one person or to a team or subcommittee and a follow-up report should be given at the next meeting as to the status of the action item or when it was completed. 

Prohibit non-safety related issues 

Do not allow non-safety issues such as maintenance issues, labor complaints, compensation, staffing levels, etc., to divert the attention from safety issues. Identify the issue as having little or no impact on safety, stop the discussion, and move on to relevant safety issues. 

Take good minutes and keep good records 

Accurate minutes of the meeting, including specific recommendations and action items, should be maintained and distributed to appropriate members of management for their review and action. Post copies of the minutes or summaries of the committee’s activities for all employees to see. 

Train members in safety & health issues 

To do their jobs effectively, committee members need to be trained in accident causation, investigation, prevention and control, regulatory requirements such as OSHA standards, and what to look for when doing a safety inspection. 

Give members time for their duties and responsibilities 

Supervisors and managers must allow the members to have the necessary time away from their regular duties to perform their duties as a safety committee member. 

Have a competent safety professional as a resource 

Without guidance from a safety professional the committee may not know the hazards or unsafe work practices on which they should focus and may not know the specifics of regulatory requirements like OSHA standards. You should utilize the services of a safety professional to act as an advisor to the committee. You can obtain these services from your insurance carrier or from an independent safety consultant. The safety professional should attend the meetings at least occasionally to ensure that the committee is addressing appropriate issues. You probably won’t need them to attend every meeting but should be able to call them for information and to answer any questions that the committee members may have. 

Acknowledge the committee’s accomplishments 

Periodically you should acknowledge and publicize the committee’s accomplishments. This will further motivate the members to accomplish even more and will keep all employees informed on the progress of the company’s safety efforts. 

Summary

Employee input is a critical part of any successful safety program. A safety committee is one way to obtain that input. If you are going to have a safety committee, make sure that it is effective and focuses on the significant hazards and loss exposures in your workplace. By following these tips, you can ensure that your committee accomplishes its purpose of preventing accidents and reducing workers’ compensation costs. You will also avoid the frustration that both employees and management feel when a committee is poorly run and wastes time on trivial issues. 

About the Authors:

Roger Paveza, President Vista Safety; Johnny Zitko, VP of Risk Services, AssuredPartners

Roger Paveza, President, Vista Safety Consulting. We work with you to identify the most individual safety and health issues facing your operations. While addressing OSHA compliance, we also focus our attention on the direct loss drivers that impact your business.
Johnny Zitko, VP of Risk Services, AssuredPartners. We’re not just in the insurance business. We’re in the business of cementing powerful, lasting relationships built on trust earned from working openly and honestly with you, as a partner.