In the article, “Making Safety Connections” by Kyle W. Morrison in Safety + Health, safety in the workplace is an important issue that cannot be taken lightly.  Safety committees working within companies can be an asset to companies working to minimize injuries and accidents in the workplace.  Safety committees are beneficial because they focus solely on the safety of employees within the workplace.  This focus allows them to be extremely effective in identifying and minimizing dangerous areas.

According to JoAnn Dankert of the National Safety Council, an effective safety committee can be beneficial for the following reasons: increases employee involvement, decreases injuries, increased employee morale, decreases incident rates and decreases workers’ compensation costs.  Dankert suggests that companies follow the following advice when implementing a safety committee within their company:

• First, she suggests that a safety committee must have a purpose.  It is necessary for a safety committee to have a purpose to create goals and be able to execute safety needs within the company.
• Secondly, Dankert suggests that safety committees select members.  It is important that the people selected for the safety committee clearly understand the expectations of the committee.  Each member should be employed within every department of the company and should include employees at different levels of management.  This allows the committee to gain a greater perspective on safety within the company and hear a variety of opinions.
• Third, Dankert recommends that the safety committee have a specific structure.  This includes having specific meeting times and expectations for every meeting.  By having a specific structure, it helps the safety committee stay on task and accomplish its goals.
• Finally, it is recommended that the safety committee members have clearly defined roles within the committee.  By assigning different tasks and roles to committee members, it creates a better organized committee with a more efficient operation.  To understand how efficient the safety committee is, it is also important to measure the success of the committee.  By measuring the success of the committee, the committee can continue to make changes in its purpose and tasks to continue to improve safety within the workplace.

A safety committee is an important asset to companies when utilized properly.  Safety committees focus on indentifying and finding solutions to hazards in the workplace and can greatly help to improve safety within a company.

Morrison, Kyle. “Making Safety Connections.” Safety + Health, March 2010, pg. 42 – 45.

Filed under: Workplace Safety by Beth Faraci Social tagging: safety committees