Safety Committees can be a great means of getting folks together and discuss issues like near misses, make improvement suggestions etc. Unfortunately, there are numerous occasions where committee members are only reluctantly participating, are looking for excuses to not attend and only sit silently in the meetings, not willing to voice their opinion. This is a problem. A rather big problem.
1. The committee members are not volunteers but have been selected by management. Can this be resolved? Maybe, maybe not. In a small to medium size company there are not that many employees available and therefore, the selection is limited. But even if they have been selected by management, the chair person can use his or her personality and make the committee meetings more interesting.
2. Management is part of the safety committee. This can be an issue. Not everybody has the courage to speak up when someone from the corner office is sitting in and listening in or even attends the meeting as a chair person. Management can be part of the committee to show commitment and visibility and interest in safety. However, if the other members are not feeling as equals, get management out of the picture. Politely but determinedly. If they refuse, for whatever reason, select committee members who have a reputation of not being afraid.
3. Here’s what you can try: Every other month (or more often) have a formal safety committee meeting in the office, for example with General Superintendent, Superintendents, Project Managers and the VP. In addition – as it is quite difficult to get carpenters, laborers and technicians into the office to be part of the committee, bring a similar meeting to the jobsite (and bring donuts or candy ---- guys and chocolate is not necessarily an oxymoron…).
a. Don’t always facilitate the formal safety committee meetings yourself, have others work as well. Review the most important issues and in the first meeting have the members of the safety committee draw a topic each. He or she will have several weeks to research the issue, discuss with the field or with the office employees and then present possible solutions which are then discussed in the second half of the meeting. Here are some examples of what can be discussed:
i. Research and determine why there is reluctance to use authority to enforce OSHA and company specific rules on jobsites. Present examples and solutions.
ii. Research and determine how project managers can be more involved in safety. How can we make sure they actually address safety issues? Is it because they may not have the knowledge what hazards may be an issue or what needs to be done to preplan safety? Present solutions.
iii. Research and determine JHA/JSA procedure and why the procedure is not followed through. Review why jobs are often started without an initial hazard review and what can be done to change this?
iv. Research and determine in how far safety performance of the company and its employees can be used as a marketing tool (not only EMR rate or zero lost time accidents). In how far would a construction company that puts a high value on safe work practices be of advantage to a client?
v. Research and determine why the focus is too often on fixing problems instead of preventing them in the first place? Present solutions.
b. Based on what was discussed in the formal safety committee meeting, discuss the same topic in the field and get their input.
The researched topics will provide a great basis for discussion. Having management (VP) in the meeting may now actually be helpful, because he (or she) will have to research a topic himself, “earn” his safety activity points, and he can also see who was actually visibly interested in safety – it may come as a surprise to some committee members in the annual performance review that the VP wasn’t sitting in just for decoration but that he indeed paid attention to the commitment of the others.
Meike Patten, MPSafetyTraining
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