10 Safety Committee Killers

Don’t let these missteps squash the effectiveness of your safety committee and overall safety culture.

• Undefined committee functions and member duties.
• Lack of member training on technical safety and health issues, familiarity with data gathering and experience with group dynamics and meeting participation.
• Insufficient budget for safety and health activities and incentives.
• Inadequate size committee for the size of the organization and its hazard potential.
• Lack of formal meeting agendas.
• Lack of communication of the committee meeting minutes and actions to employees and managers.
• Lack of follow-up on action items.
• Lackluster participation from some members or departments/workgroups,
• Management over-participation that stifles meetings and decisions,
• Committee members not empowered to make changes for the health and safety of all employees,

Tips for successful safety committees:

• Publicize the committee’s formation and offer an introductory training meeting for all employees.
• Make a directory of the committee members and the departments they represent. Consider including photos.
• Consider rotating members after they have served for a set term and have departing members train new members.
• Provide a special award for safety committee involvement/ membership or plan a dinner/luncheon for employee members to acknowledge their contribution.
• Set short-term and long-term goals for the year. Focus on injury prevention and eliminating known or potential loss sources. Review the goals periodically to determine their effectiveness.
• Set clear meeting agendas, distribute them in advance, review them at the beginning of each meeting and follow them.
• Plan the agenda for the next meeting before adjournment and avoid overloading it or carrying over items unnecessarily.
• Take meeting minutes that summarize the issues discussed, proposed actions, specific people responsible for following up on each item and target dates for completion.
• Provide copies of meeting minutes to employees and management in newsletters, emails, posts on workplace billboards, etc.
• Look for innovative ideas/solutions to action items.
• Stay focused on legitimate safety issues. Don’t let the committee become a general complaint forum.
• Make inspections a cooperative task for workers and management representatives.
• Share the actual costs of injuries with committee members.
• Communicate and recognize achievements, incoming and outgoing members and improved performance in injury/incident trends.