Commitment from all sides is vital for employee involvement to be effective and successful in improving health and safety. This means that you, your employees, and trade unions (where they are recognised) all need to be working together.
Get commitment from the business
If you are in charge of a business, or responsible for managing health and safety, you might need to convince others in management to commit. Leadership and commitment from management is important in making involvement successful. Apart from your legal duty to consult, you can demonstrate why this is something you should be doing by building a case in a number of ways:
- highlight how co-operating with employees in other areas of the business has led to improvements
- use worker involvement worker involvement case studies to show the benefits to the business
- look at current health and safety issues that you could tackle through consultation. For example, if you see an increase in a particular type of injury, discuss the best way to address it with staff
- explain that engaging the workforce is an investment, and it may take time to develop trust, but it has been shown to reduce workplace injuries and accidents
- reassure your managers that it will not diminish effective management because consultation does not mean you have to agree about every issue, but rather discuss the areas of disagreement and respect the views of others
Get commitment from your employees
Employees are more likely to engage and believe in consultation when senior managers show personal and long-term commitment, and listen to the views of employees because they want to hear what the workforce has to say.
Your employees are more likely to communicate with you if:
- you show them that you believe in the benefits of consultation
- they are committed to the businesses goals, including the health and safety goals
- they think it is in their interests to participate
- they trust you and find you approachable
- your actions match your words
- you encourage your employees to be health and safety representatives
Developing commitment
As you demonstrate your commitment to workforce involvement in health and safety, it will develop your workforce's commitment. This helps to build the trust, co-operation and communication you need to make it work.
How to encourage employees to be health and safety representatives
The workforce may have reservations about performing the role of a health and safety representative, particularly in non-unionised workplaces. Employees may believe that:
- health and safety is a matter for individuals
- they will be punished for criticising management practice
- they lack the skills and confidence to take on the role
- you will not truly take on board their concerns
To encourage your employees to represent colleagues on health and safety issues, you can build commitment in your workforce if you:
- clearly state your intention to discuss matters affecting employee health and safety with them, as required in your health and safety policy statement
- explain the benefits of joint working and co-operation for everyone because everyone has a role to play in addressing health and safety
- ensure there is a safe environment to raise issues by respecting the views of the workforce
- show how you will consider what they have to say by providing feedback to explain how decisions take employee views into account
- allow employees to have a say and make a difference in the decision-making process
Encouraging individual employees
You can help to encourage individual employees to engage in consultation if you:
- provide appropriate training as a health and safety representative to develop skills and confidence
- provide access to suitable support networks, for example through RoSPA's regional Safety Groups UK network
- provide opportunities to demonstrate how valuable their contribution is through recognition, for example, in performance agreements or rewards such as a corporate award for health and safety representative of the year