Effective Consultation Process For Implementation Of WSH Management System

Coordinating Consultation Process for Implementation of WSH Management System

The objective of encouraging worker participation and consultation is to effectively ensure workers have the opportunity to contribute and to ensure that matters that may affect employee’s safety and health are addressed effectively and in a meaningful way

Consultation is the effective communication between two or more people and in terms of health and safety it is the active 2 way interaction between management and workers. Two way communication  is not just about talking but also about active listening to other person’s point of view and opinions

And for the consultation to be meaningful, the people actually doing the work that may be affected by a WSH issue must have the opportunity to express their views. 

Example would be the development of Safe Work Procedures.   Safe work procedures  that  is developed through consultation with employees are more likely to be adhered by the employees. Similarly for risk management, organization should consult with employees on matters to do with their safety at work as the person who  do the work can be best placed to advise on whether the proposed SWP will work

Time should also be made available & interpreter provided to bring employees both literate and illiterate together to create opportunity for these employees to express their views.

There are various ways that an organization can adopt to consult the stakeholders for implementation of WSH Management System. The means of consultation may include but not restricted to the following

a)Feedback Sessions

Organization should always provide feedback session for implementation of WSH Management System because the stakeholders are the persons who will use the management system for their daily work and can be best placed to advise whether the proposed WSH Management System will work.

Feedback sessions made the employees more likely to be aware of, or readily able to help identify, hazards in their place of work. And through   feedback, employers can become more aware of hazards and WSH issues experienced by the employees. 

When there is a feedback sessions, employees can provide suggestions about how to solve WSH problems. And employee participation enables the employee to contribute on how the work can be undertaken safely.

In a feedback session, employees should be encouraged to ask questions, raise safety concerns, make safety recommendations and be a part of the problem solving process.

b)Workplace Safety and Health Committee

As part of Workplace Safety and Health (Workplace Safety and Health Committees) Regulations 2008, the occupier of every factory in which 50 or more persons are ordinarily at work, excluding persons who carry out any work which is of a temporary nature and is not ordinarily carried out in the factory shall formed Workplace Safety and Health Committee and elect the committee team members as well as prescribing their WSH roles & responsibilities as stipulated in the WSH Act.

The occupier shall also ensure that the Workplace Safety and Health Committee meets at least once a month to discuss matters relating to workplace safety and health of person(s) at work in that factory

At any meeting of a workplace safety and health committee of a factory, only matters relating to the safety and health of persons at work in the factory shall be discussed. Organization can take this opportunity to consult the stakeholders on the implementation of WSH Management System and ensure minutes of all Workplace Safety and Health meetings are recorded in file and maintained.

c)Formal and informal meetings which include workplace safety and health

Organization shall arrange for a formal and informal WSH meeting for the workers to contribute their suggestions on the implementation of WSH Management System. The objectives of such formal and informal meetings are to provide workers with an opportunity to exchange views and information, allowing them to make recommendations for action to a higher organization level and to create opportunity for them to generate ideas or solutions to the problems

Organization can implement a monthly communication program with all levels of employees within the organization.

d)Interview Sessions

Coordinate the implementation of WSH Management System can also be conducted through interview sessions with the stakeholders.  During the interview sessions, Interviewer shall ensure that the interviewee speak in a language that he/she is comfortable with and the interviewer shall be tactical in asking questions and he/she shall avoid asking “close ended” leading questions where the answer is ‘yes” or “no” . Instead the interviewer shall ask questions that  starts with WHO? Where? When? What? How? And Why? and let the interviewee tells you what he knows

e)Surveys

Survey can also be used as a form of consultation on the implementation of WSH Management System.  Survey is usually taken for the whole organization or a section only and through a survey an organization can determine existing practices, standards and conditions. 

The data gathered from a survey can be analyzed to measure the effectiveness of the WSH programmes through the use of surveys where survey can be.  . To consult the stakeholders on the implementation of WSH Management System, questionnaire shall be develop on the implementation of the WSH Management System and be circulated to all levels of employees within the organization for opinions. Organization may involve their employee in the design of the survey or carrying out the survey

f)Suggestions, requests, reports and concern put forward by employees to management

Organization shall have an open door policy for health and safety issues in order to encourage all their employees to raise issues of concern. The objective is to create opportunity for employees to give their suggestions through meetings, suggestion boxes, allow employees to report all unsafe acts/conditions and  incident, to requests for appropriate and adequate resources such as PPE as well as increase the employees ownership and personal responsibility/participation in Workplace Safety and Health

g)Written and Electronic Communication

Organization can coordinate the implementation of the WSH Management System to it’s stakeholders by developing electronic form of communications. Example will be develop electronic communications on the implementation of the WSH Management System and have them displayed on their internal intranet site or internal plasma TV to inform employees about particular issues or about progress on certain kicked off HSE projects

WSH roles, responsibilities and authorities of employees

WSH roles, responsibilities and authorities of employees   

Organization should effectively communicate to all the stakeholders whom they affect at all levels within the organization about their WSH responsibilities and authorities. Communication is important because it ensure the stakeholders understand the scope and the interfaces between the various functions and the channels to be used to initiate action.

 To ensure the effective establishment and implementation of the Workplace Safety & Health
 Management System, it is necessary to assign responsibilities and authorities if employees within
 the organization where responsibility is accountability for carrying out duties properly. And
 authority is the right to make decisions and direct the work of others

Means of communicating WSH Documents

 There are various ways an organization can use to communicate the roles, responsibilities and
 authorities to the stakeholders and this includes but not restricted to the following

a) One-on-one session by supervisors, where briefing is conducted by the supervisor to his 
   subordinate on an individual basis

b) Through job descriptions where a copy of the employee job description is given to the employee
   when he joins the company

c)Through appointment letter where a copy of the employee appointment letter is given to the
   employee when he joins the company and is acknowledged by the employee on his acceptance of
   his job appointment

Means of Communicating WSH Documents
Stakeholders	Means of Communications
Site Coordinator	1)Appointment Letter 2)Job descriptions
WSH Professionals	1)Appointment Letter 2)Job descriptions
Workers	1)One-on-one session by supervisors 2)Job descriptions 3)Appointment letter
Supervisors	1)One-on-one session by managers 2)Job descriptions 3)Appointment letter
Line Management, managers	1)Appointment Letter 2)Job descriptions
Top Management,	1)Appointment Letter 2)Job descriptions
Contractors	1) Contract Agreement 2)Job descriptions

Continual WSH Management System Improvement

Continual improvements to organization’s WSH management system                        

An organization can  improve it’s WSH management  system by identifying  management opportunities to continually improve organization’s WSH management system based on both internal and external factors where continual improvement is defined as a process or productivity improvement tool intended to have a stable and consistent growth and result in a direct performance enhancement

There are many ways an organization can adopt to improve it’s WSH management system and this may include but not restricted to

a)Accuracy of risk assessment

b)Effectiveness of control measures

c)Improvement in legal compliance

d)Setting of more challenging WSH objectives

e)Clear definition of employee’s roles and responsibilities

f)Enhancement of communication and consultation process with stakeholder

g)Enhancement in WSH organizational structure

h)Effectiveness in communication on WSH matters

i)Improvement of documentation control procedures

j)Enhancement of emergency response preparedness and response

k)Improvement in performance monitoring process

Internal factors & external which an organization should take into consideration for improvement of its management system are

For internal factors

a)WSH Risk Assessment

The results of the risk assessment can help the organization to determine what more the organization has done to prevent them and in this work assignment, the foundry 6 identified medium risk activities have prompted the top management to relook into developing safe work procedures to lower the risk level to low level

b)WSH Performance results

By setting , collating and monitoring on WSH performance indicators and HSE objectives, the organization can better manage and controlled the safety and health risk of it’s workforce. And in this work assignment,( refer to results of HSE performance indicators monitoring) several HSE performance indicators are set by the management with the objective to ensure they addressed the health and safety issues faced by the organization and those identified by both internal or external audits or even to adapt to changes to the changes in the local WSH regulations

c)WSH audit results

The objectives of both internal and external audits are to identify potential gaps between the organization management system and procedures against the auditing standards for improvement purposes. Results of an audit shall be taken seriously and action items identified by the auditors shall be followed through and implemented within the given timeframe

For external factors

a)Changes in the legal and other requirements

Organization shall maintain a legal register that monitor changes made in the legal requirements to ensure it’s continual compliance to the relevant local legislation and such register shall be maintain and updated at all times and be accessible to all stakeholder

b)External stakeholder’s feedback

An organization should also gather feedback from it’s external stakeholder which may include but not restricted to customers; union, even insurance companies feed backs as an influencing factor for raising standards by developing survey on it’s  WSH policy and objectives to determine the relevancy based on the identified five areas of the set WSH policy and objectives

Tabulated below is an example of HSE performance indicators based on the relevant information collected from the organization which includes

a)Organization risk assessment results
b)HSE statistics
c)HSE performance results
d)External /internal audit results and
e)Internal and external factors that organization should consider for WSH Management System improvement

HSE Performance Indicators	HSE Objective	Actual performance after implementation of WSH policy & objective	Action Item/Action Officer
Zero incident of H5N1 infectious disease	Zero incident of H5N1 infectious disease	0	To develop H5N1 medical emergency response procedures by end Oct 2011
Day & time loss due to plant medical emergency situation shut down (days)	Zero Day Loss	0 days Loss 0 production time loss	To develop business continuity plan & crisis management plan
Musculoskeletal Disorder	Less than 5% of work force	3%	Injury Prevention Program Training –to achieve 100% employee participation rate
Fatality Accident Rate (Automotive deaths)	0	Fatalities Accident Rate have gone down when compared to last year but still there are 5 cases of fatalities involving automotives	Implement a)Driver training& qualification b)Journey Management Standard c)Implement wearing of seat belt as condition of employment for both driver and passenger d)Substance Abuse Policy e)Driver Improvement Monitors f)Use of Cellular Phone
# of Risk Assessment With Medium Risk Level	Less than 5 RA	0	Safe Job Procedures mandatory whenever the risk level identified for activity is at medium risk level
Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate	0.87 1.03	Employee -0 Contractor-0	Employee Hazard Identification Program, & Risk Control Program -100% Participation Rate
Maintenance of Legal Register for local Regulatory Agency & Organizational Procedure, Code Of Practice, Singapore Standard	Implement .maintain & update legal register	Online Legal Register for local Regulatory Agency & Organizational Procedure, Code Of Practice, Singapore Standard set up & responsible by HSE department	HSE department responsible for maintaining and updating the legal register online and provide stakeholders updates each time there are changes made
Maintenance of Toxic Industrial Waste Register	Implement .maintain & update legal register & toxic waste inventory register Toxic Industrial Waste Management Training NEA, Electronic Consignment Note System Training	Online Legal Register for local Regulatory Agency & Organizational Procedure, Code Of Practice, Singapore Standard set up & responsible by HSE department Online Toxic Waste Inventory Register set up for waste generators Toxic Industrial Waste Management Training Conducted to all waste generators Logging Of Toxic Industrial waste qty into NEA electronic consignment notes system training conducted to all waste generators	HSE department responsible for maintaining and updating the legal register online and provide stakeholders updates each time there are changes made
Provision of information to employees on dealing with medical emergency situation in the workplace	Medical Emergency Response Plans	Develop and implement medical emergency response plan	Online medical emergency response plan incorporated into the organization intranet and communicated to all employees

Effective Tracking of WSH policy & Objectives

To track the relevancy and effectiveness of the WSH policy and objectives, the organization shall develop and implement efficient method of tracking and  monitoring their HSE performance by developing suitable HSE performance indicators . 
                             
 In this post, we assume HSE performance indicators have been set so as  to  place sufficient demands and challenges upon people in order to  motivate them to achieve th e targets of the HSE objectives.

And the results of the monitoring of the set HSE  performance indicators are presented below:

Results of HSE performance indicator monitoring

WSH Policy	HSE Performance Indicators	HSE Objective	Actual performance after implementation of WSH policy & objective	Action Item/Action Officer
Be operationally attuned and emergency prepared to respond to any health or medical emergency •           To ensure our business are not affected by any emergency situations or crisis through developing and implementing business continuity plan and crisis management plan	Zero incident of H5N1 infectious disease	Zero incident of H5N1 infectious disease	0	To develop H5N1 medical emergency response procedures by end Oct 2011
To ensure our business are not affected by any emergency situations or crisis through developing and implementing business continuity plan and crisis management plan	Loss due to plant medical emergency situation shut down (days)	Zero Day Loss	0 days Loss 0 production time loss	To develop business continuity plan & crisis management plan
Protect the health and safety of our people at all times and in all circumstances by ensuring our people are not constantly exposed to occupational diseases & workplace hazards through sound risk management & health management programmes	Musculoskeletal Disorder	Less than 5% of work force	3%	Injury Prevention Program Training –to achieve 100% employee participation rate
Driving is the greatest accident risk faced by our employees. To minimise this risk and to ensure worldwide standard for driving qualification and practices are followed, all employees at all locations shall adhere to the driving policy	Fatality Accident Rate (Automotive deaths)	0	5	Implement a)Driver training& qualification b)Journey Management Standard c)Implement wearing of seat belt as condition of employment for both driver and passenger d)Substance Abuse Policy e)Driver Improvement Monitors f)Use of Cellular Phone
Provide the best Hazard Identification, Risk Assessment & Risk Control Programmes & regularly review these programmes to achieve zero occupational disease & workplace accidents	# of Risk Assessment With Medium Risk Level	Less than 5 RA	0	Safe Job Procedures mandatory whenever the risk level identified for activity is at medium risk level
Provide the best Hazard Identification, Risk Assessment & Risk Control Programmes & regularly review these programmes to achieve zero occupational disease & workplace accidents	Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate	0.87 1.03	Employee -0 Contractor-0	Employee Hazard Identification Program, & Risk Control Program -100% Participation Rate
Develop and implement Develop and implement document control systems for the collection and maintenance of master organizational procedures, local regulatory requirements, WSH Acts, local standards and Code Of Practice	Maintenance of Legal Register for local Regulatory Agency & Organizational Procedure, Code Of Practice, Singapore Standard	Implement .maintain & update legal register	Online Legal Register for local Regulatory Agency & Organizational Procedure, Code Of Practice, Singapore Standard set up & responsible by HSE department	HSE department responsible for maintaining and updating the legal register online and provide stakeholders updates each time there are changes made
Develop and implement document control systems for the collection and maintenance of master organizational procedures, local regulatory requirements, WSH Acts, local standards and Code Of Practice	Maintenance of Toxic Industrial Waste Register	Implement .maintain & update legal register & toxic waste inventory register Toxic Industrial Waste Management Training NEA, Electronic Consignment Note System Training	Online Legal Register for local Regulatory Agency & Organizational Procedure, Code Of Practice, Singapore Standard set up & responsible by HSE department Online Toxic Waste Inventory Register set up for waste generators Toxic Industrial Waste Management Training Conducted to all waste generators Logging Of Toxic Industrial waste qty into NEA electronic consignment notes system training conducted to all waste generators	HSE department responsible for maintaining and updating the legal register online and provide stakeholders updates each time there are changes made
Provision of information to employees on dealing with medical emergency situation in the workplace	Medical Emergency Response Plan	Develop and implement medical emergency response plan	Online medical emergency response plan incorporated into the organization intranet and communicated to all employees	To identify other types of emergencies situation relevant to the organization