Once you have been consulting and involving your employees for a while and given each other time to adjust to the processes you have set in place, you should start thinking about how to keep improving over time. Realistically, there are likely to be some things that work really well, others that could work better, and some things that need to be approached in a different way. Even when some things are working well, changes over time may mean they do not remain effective.
For effective employee engagement, you need to keep monitoring performance and reviewing progress regularly with your workforce and employee representatives. You can also explore what others in your industry or similar businesses do to find out what works and share experiences of successful measures.
If you have had success with involving your employees to tackle safety issues then consider other issues. Engagement with your workforce is a powerful way to tackle musculoskeletal problems (such as back pain), work-related stress and other health problems where psychological and social factors contribute.
You will be doing well if you can show:
- employees are aware of their health and safety representative and they communicate with each other
- co-operation between managers and employees so that there are the resources to release people for meetings and training
- a health and safety committee that deals with strategic matters balanced with everyday problems that are resolved as they happen
- good communication with and through the workforce so that messages are delivered clearly and decisions are explained
- competence is built through training and information sharing so new skills can be learned as there are changes
- joint problem solving, where employees participate as equals to resolve issues
- joint inspections and monitoring of health and safety performance, risk control systems, and progress with plans