What does a safety committee have to do in order to be effective?
A safety committee requires management and whoever else is on the committee to commit to helping create and distribute policies, best practices and procedures that promote overall health and safety for an organization. The team should consult with the safety coordinator for that company or that department on any proposed or actual changes in policies, practices or procedures and assist in implementation.
It should also assist management in the planning of any occupational health issues with regard to safety. This would include helping set priorities with each of those issues, some of which could be immediately life threatening, while others are less so. It’s important to prioritize those and make sure that they are being handled appropriately.
The team should also act as a problem-solving group and help identify and control any risk issues that exist. And it should look at overall prevention. For example, in an office setting, employees can have ergonomics issues from typing on a keyboard. The committee can investigate how to overcome that. Exercises, stretches, ergonomics training, making sure the desks are the appropriate height, new keyboards —whatever it is, it’s important to have those conversations.
Another important task is to maintain and monitor the safety and health program that the company has created.
How do you improve communication within the team?
You have to meet regularly. It should be monthly, at a minimum. Engaging in a safety committee charter is also recommended. In the charter, write down what the expectations are, who the committee members are, what the purpose is, how you’re going to move forward and how that will be communicated.
If you don’t have it spelled out through an agenda and meeting regularly, it’s just going to become another one of those things that we say we’re going to do but never actually do.
Jonathan Theders, CPIA, is president and COO of Clark-Theders Insurance Agency Inc. and CTIA Risk Consulting. Reach him at (513) 779-2800 or [email protected].