What elements go into making a safety committee successful? Minnesota OSHA has developed a self-evaluation checklist to identify areas of improvement for safety and health committees. Check out their recommendations to help you assess your efforts.
- Are safety committee leaders selected by the committee?
- Are terms of service staggered so that at least one experienced member from labor and management is serving on the committee?
- Are efforts made to ensure that committee members represent the major work activities/departments of the site?
- Does the committee schedule regular meetings?
- Does the committee work from a written (and distributed) agenda?
- Are minutes maintained and made available to all employees?
- Are all reports, evaluations, and recommendations made part of the minutes?
- Does the committee have a system for collecting safety-regulated suggestions, hazard reports, or other information from front-line workers?
- Does the committee help the employer evaluate the employer’s accident and illness prevention program?
- Does the committee make written recommendations to improve safety and health?
- Are there established procedures that allow the safety committee inspection team to identify safety and health hazards?
- Does the committee recommend ways for the employer to eliminate or correct hazards and unsafe work practices?
- Does the inspection team include employer and employee representatives?
- Does the committee inspection team document in writing the location of hazards and identify them?
- Are inspections of satellite locations done by the safety committee inspection team or by an individual designated at the location?
- Are there procedures to review safety and health inspection reports made by the committee? Based on the results of the review, does the committee make recommendations for improvements?
- Has the committee established procedures for investigating injuries, illnesses, fatalities, and near-misses?
- Have the committee’s purpose, operation, and rules been discussed with all members?
- Have committee members received appropriate training tailored to the site’s operations and processes for hazard identification and accident investigation?
- Does management respond in a timely manner to recommendations? Is there a time frame established for responding to safety committee suggestions?
