01 December 2007
Lawrence Waterman

Many organisations claim that "our employees are our greatest asset," but there is usually room for improvement in their asset management.

There are formal legal requirements covering the rights of safety representatives and the formation of health and safety committees (see box), which have been in place with amendments for over 25 years, but most organisations should be aiming to go beyond these and achieve something close to a partnership with staff and their representatives.

In firms that have reviewed their approaches, there is good evidence that the involvement of workers in developing and implementing health and safety works - it reduces accidents and ill health and more than pays for itself in the savings that are made.

The HSE has published a declaration on worker involvement, which argues that workers who are given a voice and the ability to influence health and safety are safer and healthier than those who do not.

Reality check

An actively engaged workforce is fundamental to ensuring the success of all other interventions on health and safety. It provides a "reality check" from the shopfloor for employers and helps ensure health and safety activities lead to compliance.

There are several approaches to consultation and communication which work well. They include the following.

• Partnership agreements. These are formal agreements common in larger, unionised organisations that define how workers are to be involved and encouraged to participate in improving health and safety performance. Partnership working needs to be tailored to the particular characteristics of the organisation. The agreements also often describe a vision, outlining what is to be achieved by working together.
• Consultation plans. Any size of organisation can benefit from a basic statement of how workers are to be consulted. This can range from the simple (an opportunity to raise issues at shift briefings and "tool-box talks") to the formal (issuing a draft policy statement and inviting comments). Such consultation may be with the whole workforce or through representatives.
• Communication plans. For too long, health and safety has been seen as a dull affair, with paperwork and notice-boards to match. Effective communications require a strategy that uses marketing skills. The methods may include direct marketing (a leaflet on the safety policy sent to every staff member), advertising health and safety activities in company newsletters, face-to-face contact (toolbox talks, cascade briefings), safety-specific newsletters and intranet pages, and even promotions (give-aways at company sports outings with health and safety slogans on coffee mugs). In larger organisations, marketing or corporate communications people could lend a hand to improve the standard of health and safety communication. Above all,  you need to think about the key messages, the channels of communication available, the target audiences and what outcomes you wish to achieve.

In the pipeline

Communication should follow the same pattern as many other health and safety activities.

You need to plan what you're going to do, do it, then check how it is working and amend it as necessary. In short: plan-do-check-act.

Gas supply infrastructure manager Transco estimates it saved around £4.5 million in four years from a new approach to communication and involvement with its 11 000 employees.

Since 1998, the company has devolved safety responsibility to line managers and included it in their performance assessments, set up monthly staff briefings on safety issues and made sure all lost-time incidents (LTIs) are immediately investigated by managers and Unison or GMB union safety reps and any lessons shared with employees.

Transco says the new approach resulted in an 80% drop in LTIs from 35.5 per 1000 employees in 1998 to 6.6 in 2003. With an estimated cost to the company of £6000 per incident, the decrease has more than repaid the initial investment in training and communications.

Transco says there has also been a significant increase in hazard reporting and resolution.

Rounding up

Two years ago, this series of articles began with a piece on slips, trips and falls. It makes  good sense for those providing health and safety advice full time to get back to basics sometimes - for the rest of us, that's where we begin and end.

The short guides to a wide range of technical issues and management topics were designed to be useful in themselves, but also to reinforce some key messages:

• a lot of good ways to protect people from accidents and ill health at work are simple, straightforward and based on an understanding of the work itself - you don't need to be a "barrack-room lawyer"
• there is a logical sequence to managing work effectively - assess the risks, plan and implement the precautions, check how this is working and ensure throughout that you involve the workforce.
• to manage health and safety, you may need access to professional advice - but the best customer of such advice is the person who is committed to doing it well and understands the approach.

None of this works, or certainly doesn't work well, without the commitment of senior management and directors. Good health and safety is indivisible from good business, since looking after people and preventing accidents and ill health isn't an optional extra but a sensible investment and contribution to success. That's the basis of all health and safety know-how.

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Legal requirements for workforce consultation and communication

Health And Safety At Work Act 1974 (HSWA)

• Section 2(4) provides for regulations to be made to allow recognised trade unions to appoint safety representatives to consult with the employer.
• Section 2(6) requires employers to consult safety representatives with a view to making and maintaining arrangements which will enable the employer and employees to co-operate effectively in promoting and developing measures to ensure the health and safety of employees, and in checking the measures' effectiveness.
• Section 2(7) provides that in prescribed cases the employer must set up a safety committee to keep under review measures taken to ensure health and safety at work when requested by safety representatives.

The Safety Representatives And Safety Committees Regulations 1977 (SRSCR)
SRSCR and the associated Approved Code Of Practice and guidance apply to organisations that recognise trade unions for collective bargaining purposes. The unions may appoint safety representatives from the workforce and inform the employer in writing.

The representatives' functions include:

• representing employees in consultation with the employer
• investigating potential hazards, dangerous occurrences and accidents
• investigating complaints by fellow employees
• making representations to the employer on health and safety matters
• carrying out inspections
• representing colleagues in consultation with enforcement authorities
• receiving information from inspectors
• attending safety committee meetings.

Safety representatives are allowed to inspect the workplace at least once every three months or more often if substantial changes have taken place. They must be given time off with pay to exercise functions and for appropriate training. Where two, or more, safety representatives request in writing the establishment of a safety committee, the employer must do so within three months.

The Health And Safety (Consultation With Employees) Regulations 1996 (HSCER)

HSCER and associated guidance require employers with no recognised trade union to provide information on health and safety matters to employees and to take into account their views before taking decisions about health and safety matters. Employees must be consulted individually or via elected representatives.

Representatives may take up general matters affecting their constituents, or employees' concerns about possible risks and dangerous events. Employers must provide time off and pay for reasonable training for representatives to carry out their functions and provide paid time off during working time and other facilities to allow representatives to carry out their duties.

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Chemicals, Construction, Management skills, Public services, Retail and distribution, Transport, Utilities, Article, Financial / general services, Manufacturing / engineering, Worker involvement / representation