Consult - Good Practice Tips

• Recognise the role - when a health and safety representative has been appointed or elected, being a representative becomes part of their job...
• Different work patterns - think about the different work patterns of the modern workplace...
• Preferences - ask your employees or their representatives about their needs and preferences...
• Involve the representative - an investigation involving the health and safety representative can give employees more confidence to co-operate...
• Plan a programme of inspections - you and your representatives can plan a programme of inspections in advance...
• Agree the number of representatives - agree the number of representatives taking part in any one formal inspection...
• Co-ordinate inspections - plan inspections if there is more than one representative, because they can then co-ordinate their inspections to avoid unnecessary duplication.
• Inspect together - it will help your relationship with the representatives if you inspect together...
• Consult specialists - if there is a safety officer or specialist advisers...
• Break down tasks - for larger workplaces, it may not be practical to conduct a formal inspection of the entire workplace in a single session...
• Involve a variety of people - a health and safety committee made up of employee representatives ...
• Consult representatives - consult employee representatives to agree the membership and size of a safety committee;
• Represent all groups - keep the total size reasonably small, but ensure all significant employee groups are represented;
• Keep a balance - make sure employee representatives are not out numbered by management representatives;
• Represent employees - consider agreeing to more employee representatives rather than equal numbers of employee and management representatives as this shows you are not dominating the committee.
• Keep a single location - ensure a committee's work is related to a single establishment not a collection of geographically different places; and
• Avoid duplication - avoid duplicating committees for the same workplace, for example to represent different levels of staff.
• Think about minor incidents - when considering accident and injuries statistics, look at minor injuries and incidents as well as reportable ones...
• Plan meetings in advance - where possible, plan a series of committee meetings in advance...
• Communicate - all committee members should have a personal copy of the planned meeting dates...
• Keep the date - do not postpone or cancel committee meetings unless there are exceptional circumstances...
• Address strategic issues - to be effective, health and safety committees should address strategic issues...
• Agreements - to help reach agreements on recommendations...
• Disagreements - if committee members cannot agree on solutions...
• Resolve disagreements - if there are disagreements that cannot be resolved, consider following the procedures for employment relations disputes or contact Acas for advice