Making your Health & Safety Committee meetings more effective
A workplace Joint Health and Safety Committee (JHSC) has many legal obligations and powers. They must inspect the workplace, meet at least every 3 months, and can investigate workplace deaths or critical injuries among other things. But often, many committees struggle with hosting productive and efficient meetings and carrying out its duties. Even worse, JHSC members often hate participating.
If this sounds familiar, consider these 3 tips to help keep your committee engaged, make the best use of their time, and ultimately help reduce risk.
Read the full article for even more tips.
Tip #1. Understand how the law applies to JHSCs
Regardless of how long your committee has been in place, each member must understand its role and powers. A committee also has the power to investigate certain incidents and is involved in the event of a work refusal by an employee. Understanding the committee’s duties under the Occupational Health and Safety Act can help ensure meetings remain focused on the scope.
Tip #2. Select committed management members
The employer cannot pick which employee members get selected. But they can select the management representatives. Management must support the committee, so it’s important to select management representatives committed to attending meetings and working collaboratively with others on the team. They must “walk the talk.”
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Tip #3. Choose management members with different skill sets
When management members possess a variety of skill sets, it can be an asset to the committee. A manager with a finance background could budget and solicit vendors if outside help is needed to fix a health and safety problem. An engineer could help to conceptualize or design solutions. If you employ a health and safety professional or practitioner, they could be of use to the committee as well.
Read the full article to learn more about training, terms of reference, recording meeting details and assigning action items.
WorkBright? is here to assist you
Our experts have helped hundreds of health and safety committees become more efficient and effective at fulfilling their roles. Whether it's starting from scratch or helping your committee understand more about a specific hazard, we can help.
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