Why Your Safety Committee
Doesn’t Work
A. Daniel Whitfield II, ACA, ARM-P
Public Information Officer
Director, Risk Management
Val Verde Unified School District
Eric J. Preston, ARM-P
Assistant Vice President – Risk Control Services
Keenan & Associates
Safety Committee’s 101
• History of Safety Committees
– Concept traces back to 1692
– “Committee of Safety”
– Used to communicate the
safety needs of the people
Cal-OSHA’s View
• Depends on how you intend to use your
committee
(1) Meets regularly, but not less than quarterly;
(2) Prepares and makes available written records of the safety and health issues, maintained for at least
one (1) year;
(3) Reviews results of the periodic, scheduled worksite inspections;
(4) Reviews investigations of accidents and causes of incidents resulting in njury, illness, or exposure to
hazardous substances and submits suggestions to management for the prevention of future incidents;
(5) Reviews investigations of alleged hazardous conditions brought to the attention of any committee
member.
(6) Submits recommendations to assist in the evaluation of employee safety suggestions; and
(7) Upon request from the Division, verifies abatement action taken by the employer to abate citations
issued by the Division
www.dir.ca.gov/title8/3203.html
Top 10 Reason’s Why Most
Committees Fail
#10: Committee Has No Purpose
• Lack of direction/reason for the committees
existence
– Make it important
• Establish mission & vision statement
– or
• Outline Cal-OSHA requirements
But remember to keep it simple…
Mission Statement:
The mission of the XYZ University Safety
Committee (Safety Committee) is to develop and
promote a healthy and safe work environment for all employees
and visitors to our facilities through the involvement of all individuals with
regards to education, communication and safe work practices.
In addition to this primary mission, the
Safety Committee encourages all employees to participate in the safety process for the betterment of all concerned. The personal safety and health of each employee of the
XYZ Facilities Management is of primary importance. To the greatest degree possible, this committee will provide employees a voice to management to ensure that concerns and issues related to safety are brought
to the forefront. In carrying out its primary mission, the committee is committed to four basic principles:
Help to formulate and disseminate policies, practices, and procedures that promote health and safety.
Assist management in the planning of action on occupational health and safety. This will include helping to set priorities to control hazards.
Act as a problem solving group to help with the identification and control of hazards.
Help to resolve health and safety issues.
Activities:
The activities of the committee will include, but are not limited to, the following:
Identify unsafe work practices and conditions and suggest appropriate remedies.
Review accident/incident reports. Types of accidents, causes and trends shall be identified and appropriate corrective action suggested.
Assist in the development and implementation and maintenance of effective safety programs.
Encourage feedback from all individuals with regard to health and safety related ideas, problems, and solutions.
Serve as an advisory body to the Auburn University Facilities Management Safety Steering Committee on safety programs and issues.
#9: Voluntold Participation
• Committee members are not
interested/vested in the concept & therefore
don’t participate or contribute
– You can encourage participation & suggest that
there be a rep from each department/site
– Be willing to take the “vocal” employees
#8 & #7: Too Few/Many Members
Too few can’t get anything accomplished.
#8 & #7: Too Few/Many Members
Too many, um, still can’t get anything accomplished.
#8 & #7: Too Few/Many Members
• Ok Goldilocks, how do you know what’s “just
right”?
– It depends on the objective
• Larger (Over 25) for creativity and brainstorming, just
generating ideas
• Medium (around 20) for having back and forth
discussions (usually discussing solutions to problems)
• Small (less than 15) for decision making
#6: It Becomes a Complaint Session
• The only things discussed are all of the
“problems” without any ideas for solutions.
– Committee is seen as a
way to “speak your mind”
– Authority of committee
needs to be part of reason #10
– Stems from voluntold participation, size of the
group, and most importantly, the next reason…
#5: Management Not Involved
• If there’s no upper-level support/involvement
then the committee has no authority to
execute recommendations
– Try to get a 50/50 split
– Management needs to be
engaged and empathetic,
even to the “vocal” members
#4: No Agenda
• The meetings MUST have an agenda to keep
all parties interested and to allow the
members time to bring thoughts to the table.
– Can be used if the members get off-topic
– Helps for recordkeeping & taking meeting minutes
• Requires a moderator or meeting “leader”
Tips for making a powerful agenda
•
•
•
•
Start on time….end early!
8:15am – Put times next to every item
Eric – Put names of topic speakers next to every item
Include a topic for reviewing action items from the
last meeting
• Include a topic for scheduling the or announcing the
next meeting time/location
• Send the agenda out AHEAD of time
#3: No Action Items Assigned
• Follow-up on items discussed at the last
meeting is critical to show members and the
rest of the employees that the committee is
actually accomplishing
something and helps keep
solutions & expectations
manageable
#2: Committee Used to Make/Run
Compliance Plans
• Compliance plans need to be written to suite
the employees that the plan impacts. Some
are organization wide but most are specific to
a few key occupations.
• Tends to be overwhelming for a committee to
tackle
Compliance Quiz Show!
• What’s Fed-OSHA’s annual budget?
• How many Cal-OSHA written compliance programs
does a typical public agency need to have in place?
• If you held quarterly meetings and IF you could
completely review one plan per meeting, how long
would it take the committee to review all plans?
#1:
Time
What is time?
• “Time” depends on your point of view:
– Science = A continuous, measurable quantity in which
events occur in a sequence proceeding from the past
through the present to the future
– Religion = Started with a God and will end when the world
ends (it already ended according to the Mayan calendar)
– Business = Money
– Sports = Reaction time, sprinting time, speed skating time,
how many days until the trade deadline, etc.
What is time?
– Philosophy = they can’t agree
• Time is part of the fundamental structure of the
universe, a dimension in which events occur in
sequence. Time exists.
• Time is an intellectual concept (together with space
and number) that enables humans to sequence and
compare events. Time does not exist in and of itself,
rather, WE are time.
Some simple truths about time
• Time is irreversible (even with an awesome
Delorean)
• Time has, and will continue to go on forever.
• We only get to use a sliver of forever’s time
• Our time here is finite
• How we choose to use that time is what matters,
and how effective we are at using it is what will
help mold our perception of that time.
Failure of effective use of time
• Being busy is not the same thing as being
effective
– Encourages waste of time on tasks rather than on
accomplishing larger goals
– Not focused on your primary goals
• Time management is a misnomer…
Task & Action Management
Safety Committee Best Practices
Consolidate, consolidate,
consolidate…
Find out what is already in place
• Habits, rituals – workplace culture
• No one believes that they have additional time, so find
out where they already spend their time and capitalize
on it.
Think outside the…circle
(boxes have sharp corners)
Few people likes the term “committee”
• Call it something else. Labels can make all the
difference in changing negative climates into positive
ones.
Boasts and Gripes
What’s working for you & your safety
committee?
What’s not working for you and/or your safety
committee?
Thank you
A. Daniel Whitfield II, ACA, ARM-P
Public Information Officer
Director, Risk Management
Val Verde Unified School District
(951) 940-6100 x10672
awhitfield@valverde.edu
Eric J. Preston, ARM-P
Assistant Vice President
Loss Control Services
Keenan & Associates
(951) 715-0190 x1196
epreston@keenan.com