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