MODULE 4: SAFETY COMMITTEE EDUCATION AND TRAINING
Introduction In the last module we discussed ways to get people excited about joining and being involved in the safety committee. In this module, we'll continue the theme of safety committee member professional development. Effective education and training is the key to making the safety committee a valuable profit center in your company. If you've been a member of a safety committee whose members were not properly trained, you can appreciate the benefits from effective safety committee training. You may be a member of a safety committee right now. Did you receive any training about your role and responsibilities as a safety committee member when you joined? Chances are you didn't. If you did, that's great. New safety committee members should be properly educated so that they understand why their new position is so important. The purpose is to affect attitudes about the safety committee and the contribution each member can make. Safety committees that lack effective education and training, for the most part, flounder around but rarely get much done. The benefits of training the safety committee It's important that safety committee members be trained so that they understand the big picture. Each member needs to know how the safety committee fits into the company's operations plan and how it can most effectively benefit the employer.
Training will help each safety committee member
- Understand the role and purpose of the safety committee;
- Understand and carry out their individual responsibilities;
- Understand important safety and health concepts, methods, rules;
- Improve safety leadership skills;
- Improve communications skills with other employees;
- Improve meeting management skills;
- Improve problem solving skills;
- Improve writing skills;
- Improve ability to successfully submit proposals;
- Increase their value to the company;
- Increase the opportunity for career advancement.
- Fulfill their mission to assist the employer;
- Improve its status within the company;
- Work together as a problem-solving team;
- Submit high quality recommendations to correct hazards;
- Have a positive impact on lowering claims costs, raising profits.
- Gain a better understanding of the positive impact of safety;
- Demonstrate effective safety leadership and management;
- Lower injury and illness rates;
- Improve profitability, competitiveness, and morale;
- Correct hazards and make system improvements in a timely manner;
- Maintain an effective system of accountability;
- Develop a successful recognition program.
- Safety committee operations
- Hazard identification and control concepts and methods
- Accident investigation procedures
One of the hazard identification and control duties you might have as a member of the safety committee might be conducting regular walk-around safety inspections. Safety inspections can be effective in spotting workplace hazards, but only if the people inspecting know what they're looking for and ask the right questions.
Sometimes, safety inspections consist of one person walking around with what I call the "rolling-eyeball" approach. The inspector just scans up and down, side to side, all over the place looking for hazards, not really knowing what to look for. Occasionally, the inspector might ask an employee if they have any "safety complaints", only to receive with a quick "no" so the person can get back to work. You can imagine that such an inspection ends up a waste of the inspector's time and the employer's money. If you are going to inspect...inspect effectively so that the company realizes some benefit from the process. The Hierarchy of Controls Once hazards have been identified, safety committee members need the skills to suggest recommendations that will correct the hazards were discovered during the inspection. The most effective approach in determining successful corrective actions is to employ a decision-making protocol called the Hierarchy of Controls. In this strategy corrective actions are considered in the following order:Engineering controls. Simply put, applying engineering controls to eliminate hazards refers to replacing or redesigning machinery, equipment, tools, materials, or workplaces. Engineering the hazard out is important as a first line of attack because it can totally eliminate the hazard. Other strategies are less likely to do so.Accident investigation procedures In some companies, safety committees are assigned the responsibility to review and evaluate accident reports. Consequently, it's important that safety committee members understand effective accident investigation procedures and what good accident reports look like. The six-step accident investigation procedure One effective process for conducting accident investigations includes six steps to assess, analyze, and evaluate facts to develop permanent corrective actions. The six steps are:Administrative controls. If you can't eliminate the hazard through engineering controls alone, you make have to also change work procedures to reduce the exposure to the hazard that remains. Another way to reduce exposure to existing hazards is to rotate people to other jobs or change their break schedules. The idea is to reduce the amount of time any one individual is placed within the "danger zone" of a hazard. Administrative controls are likely less effective than engineering controls because strategies involve attempting to control human behavior. Unless management is diligent in managing administrative controls, they will ultimately break down and possibly fail.
Personal protective equipment (PPE). This is the last strategy on the hierarchy because it doesn't really eliminate or reduce the hazards; it just sets up a barrier between the hazard and the worker. And, people just don't like to wear PPE. Like administrative controls, unless safety program systems are effectively maintained long term, this strategy will be unsuccessful.
Step 1. Secure the accident scene to ensure material evidence is not moved;Ineffective accident reportsStep 2. Gather data and information using observation, interviews, photos, sketches, etc;
Step 3. Develop the sequence of events prior to, during and immediately after the accident;
Step 4. Analyze each event for surface and root causes that contributed to the event;
Step 5. Develop recommendations for immediate and long-term corrective actions.
Step 6. Write the accident report.
One important monitoring function the safety committee can perform is to evaluate accident reports to make sure they are of consistently high quality. Sadly, untrained accident investigators may submit reports are weak at best in actually uncovering the causes of accidents. What are some of these weaknesses?
Why accident reports fail
Accident reports fail to be effective for a number of reasons, but perhaps
the number one reason is that the investigator uncovers the surface causes
for an accident and stops there. The root causes for an accident are never
addressed. Only by uncovering the root cause of an accident, can similar
accidents be prevented in the future.
A second major cause for a failed accident report may be that the investigator determines that the victim or some other person is "to blame." Consequently, hazardous conditions, unsafe work practices, or failures in the safety management system may not be uncovered and addressed. It's virtually impossible to conduct an effective accident investigation if the blame game is played. The key is to find out what's missing in the safety management system. More on this topic in OSHAcademy Course 702.
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Training safety committee members
You now know basically what subjects in which to train safety committee members, but what type of training is best, and when is the best time to conduct the training? You have several alternatives:Formal classroom training. In many cases, formal training in-house or from an external source can get a safety committee member trained quickly when needed. Classroom training is best if the class is composed of students from many different departments or companies. By the way, most adults like small group exercise as their favorite training method. On the other hand, most adults do not like lecture (boring!)Computer based training (CBT). This is growing in popularity because safety committee members can fit short training sessions on the computer into their busy schedules at work or at home. CBT can lack the quality other types of training offers if no live interaction occurs between the student and an instructor.
Informal on-the-job training. (OJT) This is best done by first-line supervisors. Safety committee members will learn how to do things like use personal protective equipment, conduct accident investigations, and perform job hazard analyses.
Mini training sessions at safety committee meetings. This is a good method to keep safety committee members up on the latest changes to OSHA standards and changes in company policy, procedures, and rules. Mini training sessions can be as short as five minutes or up to 30 minutes. However, most are in the 10 minute range, so time is available to conduct other meeting business.
Final word
You know the importance of a well-trained safety committee, the subjects to train, and the best strategies for getting the training done. Safety education and training, effectively accomplished by a qualified supervisor, can have dramatic positive results in your safety and health program.| Copyright © 2000-2008 Geigle Communications, LLC. All rights reserved. Federal copyright law prohibits unauthorized reproduction by any means and imposes fines up to $25,000 for violations. Students may reproduce materials for personal study. Comment |