The method you use to involve your employees will depend on:
- which set of employee involvement regulations apply to your workplace
- whether you are involving individuals directly or consulting your employee representatives
- the specific health and safety issue you wish to consult on
The different methods of consulting your employees include:
- face-to-face, directly with individuals
- indirectly with employees
- consulting with representatives
Use a range of methods to suit the circumstances and use a combination if a single method alone is not suitable. Whatever method you choose, you need to ensure it complies with your duties. For example, if you choose to consult with employees directly, you need to make sure it is practical otherwise you must consult with representatives.
You may also need to think how you will consult with people whose first language is not English.
Consulting directly with employees
Use a range of methods to suit the circumstances and combine them if a single method is not suitable. Whatever method you choose, you need to make sure it's practical, otherwise you must consult with representatives. There are many ways you can consult face-to-face:
- one-to-one discussions can be effective if you have a small business and have the opportunity to talk to your employees regularly
- if your business is larger, then you could try regular walkabouts where you get to meet employees, and they get to share ideas and concerns. If you are regularly approachable, employees are more likely to open up about the risks, especially if you then do something about the issues raised
- have health and safety as a standing item on the agenda of routine team meetings. Your employees can feed back their views to you, so there is always an opportunity for health and safety issues to be picked up
- special workforce meetings can be best when you need to call the whole workforce together for their views and opinions. This could be in addition to regular team meetings. At large meetings, the exchange of views and ideas might not be as effective as in smaller gatherings where people may feel more comfortable sharing their views
- arrange toolbox talks where you have short talks on specific health and safety issues that show the relevance of a topic to particular jobs, for instance a talk about manual handling for those doing jobs that involve lifting heavy goods. A toolbox talk allows you and your workers to explore the risks and think about ways to deal with them
- set up work groups to tackle specific health and safety issues and explore ways of making a difference. The employees involved in the group should be directly involved with the issues being looked at so they can really contribute to solutions
Consulting indirectly with employees
Company intranet sites with health and safety information are convenient as they can feature news and request the views of all your staff. Keep the information updated and draw attention to new material so people who do not regularly check it will know what is happening in their workplace. If some staff do not have access to the site, the quality and range of views given may be compromised.
Staff surveys can be useful in consulting your workforce, although a lack of trust can undermine surveys and reduce the return rate. Consider the literacy or language skills of the workers to make sure they can answer questions they understand. You can get an external organisation to run the staff survey so your employees feel they can say what they really think.
Employee suggestion schemes can be useful if they are regularly used and acted upon, but they may not work if employees believe it will not make a difference, or because you and your employees have already developed a good working relationship without the need for a suggestion box.
Notice boards and newsletters can be useful for sharing information, particularly if used with other methods to increase the chance of getting your messages across.
Consulting employees whose first language is not English
If your employees have difficulties understanding English, or have low literacy levels, there are a number of ways you can communicate with them to encourage their involvement. The aim is to achieve the same standard of understanding and involvement as for an English speaker.
The following can help to involve and consult such employees:
- ensure adequate time to consult with employees where language and/or literacy may be issues so they can absorb the information and respond to you
- encourage employees to express their views in their preferred language by using interpreters
- ask a work colleague to interpret, although these employees may need training if they are asked to undertake this role
- get information translated and check that this has been done clearly and accurately by testing it with native speakers (make sure it is clear in English first)
- use pictorial information and internationally understood pictorial signs where appropriate
- where information has to be in English, use clear and simple materials, and allow more time
- committees and representatives should reflect the workforce they represent
- consider courses in English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) as this will help communication in the workplace and on health and safety
Be aware of cultural differences and take these into account when consulting employees - there may be some employees who do not feel able to speak up about health and safety matters.
The key to individual consultation is to make sure that everybody is involved so choose those methods that you know will reach all members of the workforce.