Now that you’ve decided to implement a safety committee, the next step is to determine what roles and responsibilities your safety committee members should have. Here are a few things to consider:
Act As a Positive Influence
Committee members must be above average in their safe work habits and their positive attitude about safety.
Report Unsafe Conditions
Depending on your organization, safety committee members can report unsafe acts and conditions directly to their immediate supervisor or write-up safety notices/reports and give them to the safety committee for action by management.
Conduct Inspections and Audits
Many organizations utilize safety committee members to perform safety inspections or audits. Since these are the people who know the work practices and the jobs on your site-and the inherent hazards in the work, they know the safe-and the unsafe-way to perform the jobs.
But assigning safety committee members to do safety inspections and audits is only the start-training them in how to do the inspection task accurately and thoroughly is the next step.
Organizations who utilize safety committees effectively provide them with a checklist or audit form, usually sub-divided by department or work unit. The form allows the inspector to focus very specifically on unsafe conditions or unsafe acts.
The best type of safety audit form usually comes from those organizations that have developed a Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) for each job. These JHAs, if well done, give your safety auditors the key elements in every job – the unsafe practices, the dangerous conditions – you are likely to encounter on the job.
Lead Accident Investigation Efforts
Depending on your safety policy, you may want to utilize the safety committee to assist you in investigating accidents. Some organizations ask the committee to investigate all lost work day accidents and report the findings and recommendations to management. For other organizations, safety members work jointly with supervisors to find the causes of accidents.
If you would like assistance creating a description for your safety committee members’ roles and responsibilities, contact Aisha Hartford at 800-462-6435 ext. 233.