Safety Committee Basic Training

MODULE 4: SAFETY COMMITTEE TRAINING

Introduction

Congratulations! You've finished the Module Three. Remember, you'll have people falling over themselves to be a part of the safety committee if you use the right strategies. Once they do become members, they must be properly trained to be effective members. This module discusses the various subjects that are important to train safety committee members, and covers some ways to make training interesting to them.

One of the ways to develop a motivated safety committee is to make sure they're properly trained. If you've ever been a member of a safety committee whose members were not properly trained, you can appreciate the benefits from effective safety committee training.

Safety Committee Education and Training

Safety committees that lack effective training will "spin their wheels" a lot, but rarely get much done. Lacking adequate knowledge and skills, they will not be able to fulfill their most important role as a consultant group that assists the employer in making improvements the safety management system: the root causes for all safety problems.

The benefits of training the safety committee

It's important that safety committee members be trained so that they understand the big picture... where the safety committee fits into the company's operations plan.

Training will help each member

• Understand the role and purpose of the safety committee
• Understand and carry out their individual responsibilities
• Understand and carry out employer safety plans, policies, and processes
• Understand important safety and health concepts, principles, and methods
• Improve personal safety leadership skills
• Improve personal communications skills
• Improve meeting management skills
• Improve analysis, evaluation and problem-solving skills
• Improve writing skills
• Improve ability to successfully submit proposals
• Increase their value to the company
• Increase the opportunity for career advancement

• Fulfill their mission to assist the employer
• Improve its status within the company
• Work together as a problem-solving team
• Submit high quality recommendations to correct hazards
• Have a positive impact on lowering claims costs, raising profits

A well-trained safety committee will help the employer

• Demonstrate effective safety leadership and management
• Lower injury and illness rates
• Improve profitability, competitiveness, and morale
• Correct hazards in a timely manner
• Gain a better understanding of the positive impact of safety
• Maintain a fair system of accountability
• Develop a successful recognition program

The minimum requirements

For a safety committee to operate successfully, its members must be properly trained in at least three very important areas:

1. Safety committee operations and how to conduct meetings, etc.
2. Hazard identification and control concepts and methods
3. Accident investigation procedures

Safety committee operations

This is pretty obvious, but no less important. Safety committee members should be trained in how the safety committee operates and what is expected of them as members.

Any training method might work for new safety committee members, but I think one-on-one, hands-on training is probably most effective in most situations. The chairperson can best convey clear expectations and answer any questions the new member might have if the training is done during a brief one-one-one session. It would be important to cover the general requirements contained in OAR 437, Div. 1, Rule 765 and Rule 760 with the new member.

Hazard identification and control Principles

To be effective, safety committee members must know basic hazard identification and control concepts and methods. One of the duties you might have as a member of the safety committee might be to conduct quarterly (or more frequent) walk-through safety inspections. Safety inspections can be effective in spotting workplace hazards, but only if the persons inspecting know what they're doing...and looking for. Many times, safety inspections consist of a couple of people walking around with what I call the "rolling-eyeball" syndrome. They just scan all around the work area looking for hazards, not really knowing what to do. You can imagine such an inspection is probably going to be a waste of time and money.

Once hazards have been found, safety committee members should be able to help take corrective action to eliminate or reduce the hazard. The most common strategy to eliminate hazards is to apply the following Hierarchy of Controls:

1. Engineering controls
2. Management controls
3. Personal protective equipment
4. Interim measures

More on hazard identification and control will be covered in Module 6.

Accident investigation procedures

In many companies, safety committees will review and evaluate accident reports. It's important that safety committee members understand what a effective accident report looks like. To be effective, an accident report should contain the following sections:

• Section One: Background information. A brief listing of the who, what, where, how, when of the accident.
• Section Two: Description of the accident. A detailed step-by-step description of the events leading to, during and immediately after the accident.
• Section Three: Findings. A description of the surface and root causes for the accident. Most accident reports fall short because they do not address root causes.
• Section Four: Recommendations. Recommended corrective actions that will eliminate or reduce the surface and root causes of the accident.
• Section Five: Summary. A summary, in the opinion of the investigator how the accident could have been prevented and the estimated direct and indirect costs associated with the accident.

More on incident/accident analysis will be covered in Module 7.

Other important subjects

The field of occupational safety and health has many specialized and highly technical subject areas. Your safety committee will benefit if its members are familiar, at least to some degree with any or all of the subjects in the partial list below:

Safety subjects

• Hazard communication
• Lockout/Tagout
• Confined space entry
• Construction safety
• Maritime safety
• Forest activities - logging
• Agriculture safety - equipment
• Ergonomics - manual material handling
• Machine guarding

Health subjects

• Bloodborne pathogens
• Hazardous waste and emergency response
• Hazardous atmospheres
• Hearing conservation
• Ventilation
• Asbestos abatement
• Ergonomics - repetitive motion
• Agriculture safety - pesticides

Training Methods

You now know basically what subjects to train safety committee members, but what type of training is best, and when is the best time to conduct the training? You have several alternatives:

• Formal classroom training. In many cases, formal training in-house or from an external source can get a safety committee member trained quickly when needed. Classroom training is best if the class is composed of students from many different companies. Be careful you don't get into the lecture mode...it's the least appreciated presentation method by most adults. Instead, emphasize group exercise and problem-solving because these training methods appear to be most preferred by adults.

  
  

• Computer based training (CBI). This is growing in popularity because safety committee members can fit short training sessions on the computer into their busy schedules at work or at home. CBI can lack the quality other types of training offers if no live interaction occurs between the student and an instructor.

  
  

• Informal on-the-job training. Best done by first-line supervisors. Safety committee members will learn about the hazards and specific safe work procedures associated with their job. Actually getting out and conducting a simulated inspection is probably the best way to gain the expertise needed to effectively identify hazards during actual inspections.

  
  

• Mini training sessions at safety committee meetings. This is perhaps the best method to keep safety committee members up on the latest changes to OSHA standards and changes in company policy, procedures, and rules. Mini training sessions can be as short as five minutes or up to 30 minutes. However, most are in the 10 minute range, so time is available to conduct other meeting business.

Let's Review

31. List two benefits your employer will realize from a trained safety committee.

32. List two benefits you receive from safety committee training.

33. List two benefits the safety committee will see from being properly trained.

34. All of the subjects below are required for safety committee training, except?

a. Safety committee duties and responsibilities
b. Workers' compensation law
c. Accident investigation procedures
d. Hazard identification and control principles

35. How can the safety committee be effectively trained in identifying specific hazards in your workplace?

36. According to the text, most accident reports fall short of being effective because:

a. accident investigators try to place blame
b. the reports do not uncover root causes
c. the reports don't get distributed to management
d. accident investigators don't feel accountable

37. Which of the following classroom training presentation strategies seems to be most preferred by adults?

a. Lecture
b. Group exercise
c. Discussion
d. video

38. According to the text, mini training sessions of 5-10 minutes in length are effective for ________.

a. training new employees
b. orientation
c. training during safety committee meetings
d. formal training sessions during breaks

39. Due to time limitations, training should not be conducted during meetings.

a. True
b. False

40. Safety committee members should be familiar with all of the following control measures, except.

a. engineering controls
b. interim measures
c. management controls
d. structural controls

Answers to the quiz.

Congratulations on completing module four! An effectively trained safety committee is an absolute requirement for success. Continue on to the next module to learn about four important safety committee success tools. If you have any questions or comments, just drop me an email at allen.e.freauff@state.or.us.