Safety Committees

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The Federal Government does not mandate that an organization maintain a safety committee; however, approximately 14 states do require employers with over 25 employees maintain safety committees.

Maintaining a safety committee is a critical component to maintain a strong safety program and is recommended by most safety experts and governmental labor agencies. As such, there is a wealth of information available in public domain on the topic, which the content of this blog is based.

Why should an organization have a safety committee? The safety committee, if functioning properly allows for the following:

1.       Provides a forum for employees to voice their concerns about safety issues.

2.       Allows for the employee involvement in the safety process.

3.       Provides for an open forum for safety discussions and a mechanism to report to management on the safety process and results.

4.       Employee morale should improve.

5.       A reduction in incidents leading to injury should be realized.

6.       A creation of a culture of safety throughout an organization.

(Source: http://www.tdi.texas.gov/pubs/videoresource/stpsafetycomm.pdf)

For the safety committee to be successful it needs to be structured. The committee should have set meetings dates on a predetermined cycle, an agenda, a chairman, a secretary, meeting minutes that are maintained and reviewed with management, and have attendance recorded.

A meeting agenda may have the following topic headings:

1. Call to Order
2. Old Business
3. Accident Review
4. Inspection Report

The meeting minutes may have the following topic headings:

1.  Date and Time of the Meeting
2.  Location of the meeting.
3. Chairperson.
4. Members in attendance.

Then provide commentary in separate headings for the topics contained in items 2 through 5 as listed in the preceding paragraph.

The safety committee should be made up of a manageable number of people that will be determined, in part, by the size of the organization. A small company may decide on 5 to 6 members, while a larger company may want to have 10 to 12 members. The committee should be made up of an equal number of management appointees and employee elected representatives. States that mandate safety committees often time require employee representation to out number the management representation on the safety committee.

The safety committee should have a charter that includes its mission and the goals that intends to achieve. By way of example the committee may be charged with:

1. The committee will review and maintain safety policies and procedures in the form of a Injury and Illness Protection Policy.
2. The committee will review all new injury incidents including reported near misses.
3. The committee will make recommendations to management regarding process changes to prevent injury.
4. The committee will conduct safety investigations.
5. The committee will conduct safety audits. 

As emphasized in the last blog post, the committee needs to be sanctioned and supported by senior management. 

Sometimes the hardest part is to get started, but there is no time like the present.

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Building a Safety Program

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There is a wealth of information on the internet that will lead you to information to educate yourself and model a program that fits your organization needs. The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (“OSHA”) has model programs available at its website. Go to the following website to access that information: 

https://www.osha.gov/dcsp/compliance_assistance/sampleprograms.html.

OSHA’s sites provides sample safety programs on this page. Please view the section titled General Health and Safety Programs. Under this section is a link to a Sample Safety and Health Program for Small Business.

In addition, to OSHA there are state specific sites that have very helpful information regarding safety programs. Texas and Ohio have been very useful.

Ohio has literature on the 10 Steps to establishing a health and safety program that are clear and concise. Those steps are:  

1. Visible, active senior management leadership
2. Employee involvement and recognition
3. Medical treatment and return-to-work practices
4. Communication
5. Timely notification of claims
6. Safety and health process coordination and employer education
7. Written orientation and training plan
8. Written and communicated safe work practices
9. Written safety and health policy
10. Record keeping and data analysis

Source: https://www.bwc.ohio.gov/downloads/blankpdf/10stepman.pdf

The first step mentions visible and active leadership, which includes the need for senior management’s financial and strategic support of the safety program. From my experience this is the most critical of all the steps. Proceeding without senior management full "buy-in" to the process will most certainly result in inadequate resources and competing interests within the organization.

For instance, if senior management indicates to their organization that the number one priority is customer satisfaction and quality, then safety invariably becomes subordinate to those directives. When the safety and risk management professional seeks to engage the organization and securing operations  "buy-in" into the safety program, it must compete with senior managements other priorities and integrate them into those priorities, which risks diluting the message. 

In addition, the safety professional will need to compete for funding of the safety program. Funding would include resources for staff to perform training, communication materials, administration of accident investigations and follow up on investigation findings to prevent further accidents.

To secure proper funding and management buy-in, the risk and safety professional must be an advocate for their programs. They must quantify return on investment into the safety program that the resources being expended will bring to the organization. The organizations existence is to enhance shareholders value and provide a return on the shareholders investment, so the risk and safety professional will need to understand finance and be able to sell its program. One could also argue that an organization has a ethical duty to protect and care for its human resources, but the financial argument coupled with the human factor argument will be more compelling.

For instance, if there is a recommendation that a fleet of vehicles should have on-board global positioning systems that will measure driver activity, then the program costs should be compared with a credible forecast of savings related to the number of accidents prevented, reduced accident severity and provide an summary of the ancillary benefits. The ancillary benefits were mentioned in the last post, but warrant repeating. Those benefits include reduced administrative costs, keeping production on schedule and fostering a sense of caring for the employees well being.

So the first steps of the process of instituting a robust safety program are to secure senior management’s support and gaining employee involvement.

The first three steps of the safety management cycle of identifying and analyzing the organizational processes and hazards present in the workplace and examining alternative processes or techniques to treat the hazards will need to take place so that a presentation to senior management can be constructed.

Gaining employee involvement will include the formation a safety committee to steer the safety efforts and provide feedback to senior management on the performance of the program. This will be the topic of the next post.  

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