Coordinating 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

Methods Of Evaluating Training

Methods of evaluating training

Organization can evaluate the training needs of their stakeholder by collecting relevant information from the stakeholders for the development of  the WSH training needs of their stakeholders.

There are a number of ways in which an organization can collect information from the stakeholders for the development of the stakeholders training needs and they are namely:

1)Questionnaire

Questionnaire allows a quick evaluation from a large group of trainees provided the respondents is able to understand the questions and respond to them. Both open ended and close ended questions shall be taken into consideration during the questionnaire design stage and questionnaires shall be develop  in such a way that it will not raise doubts in the respondents

S/N	Questionnaire	Select as appropriate Yes / No
1	Do you know about your strengths and weaknesses?
2	Do you have any choice in choosing the training courses you think you need?
3	Do you discuss your training needs with your line manager / the training department?
4	Are your skills being used effectively in the organization?
5	Do you have a career development plan?
6	Do you have a personal development plan?
10	Do you have the transferable knowledge and skills to enable you to find another job if you current one ends, or you choose to change employer?
11	How do you plan to address your weakness weaknesses?
12	How do you propose to keep up to date and maintain your professional standards?
13	How can the organization help you to achieve your work goals and objectives?
14	How does your training link to organizational aims and objectives?
15	If you have the opportunity to choose your training course , what are the courses that you will be interested?
16	Is the organization training courses sufficient to make you WSH competent  for your job? If your answer is NO , what are the courses that will make you competent for your WSH roles

Performance Appraisal

Organization can also gather relevant information for the development of the stakeholders training needs through performance appraisal. Due to the confidentiality of the data involved, the human resource department shall be responsible for the collection ,analysis and presentation of the data

Information from the stakeholders are collected based on the immediate Superior’s evaluation of his/her reports using pre determined training needs analysis questionnaire which are submitted to the human resource departments for training needs analysis upon completion

Gantt charts shall be used for easy presentation of the stakeholders training needs

S/N	Questionnaire	Select as appropriate Yes / No
1	Does the person have the ability to successfully achieve work objectives?
2	Does the person have the right attitude for the job?
3	Is the employees lacking specific areas of experience which need to be addressed?
4	Does the employees possess the interpersonal skills to work effectively in their area
5	Does the employee have the specific knowledge required for the post?
6	Does the employee possess the people management skills for their position?
7	Does the person have the specific knowledge required for the post?
8	Does the person have the ability to work in a team?
9	Does the person have the specific technical skills required for  his current position?

Risk Assessment

Alternatively, an organization can also gather relevant information for the development of the stakeholders training needs from their risk assessment registers because the risk assessment register contains a great deal of  information

The basic steps involves in the risk assessment exercise are

a) the identification of the risks associated with the work activities ;

b) estimation of the risk levels;

c)identifying existing risk control measures,

d)assessing potential severity of identified hazards and

e)determining likelihood of occurrence of accidents and incidents 

To conduct an effective risk assessment requires the knowledge of the organization operations and processes as well as understanding the methodology of how risk assessment is developed.

Failure to identify hazards and poor estimation of the likelihood and severity of the occurrence of accidents and incidents can lead to potential unplanned hazardous events.

Hazard identification is the most important step in risk assessment as hazards can only be controlled if they are being identified. And to minimize the individual subjectivity on estimation of the likelihood and severity of the occurrence of accidents/incidents, organization shall develop procedures for the implementation of hazard identification programme , risk assessment  programme, risk control programme and hazard communication programme  to equip their stakeholders with the expertise to maintain  a safe and healthy workplace.

To establish the training needs of the risk assessment team, a pre determined checklist on the effectiveness of the risk assessment team, their knowledge and understanding of the risk assessment methodology shall be developed and the team performance assessed by the Occupational safety and health personnel in view of the specialized activity.

S/N	Questionnaire	Select / fill in as appropriate
1	Does the risk assessment team understand  the risk assessment methodology. Grade them on a scale of 1 to 10	Answer :                               Grade
2	Is existing control measure relevant to the hazards identified? Grade them on a scale of 1 to 10	Answer :                               Grade
3	Does the risk assessment team have the know-how to conduct an effective risk assessment? Grade them on a scale of 1 to 10	Answer :                               Grade
4	Are the risk control measures to reduce the identified risk level relevant & applicable to the identified hazards? Grade them on a scale of 1 to 10	Answer :                               Grade
5	Is the risk assessment team comprises of cross functional departments employees whom have good knowledge on the organization operations and processes? Grade them on a scale of 1 to 10	Answer :                               Grade

Course of Action for Collating and Reporting Consultation Feedback to Management
WSH Management Programmes	Elements of WSH Management System	Course of Action
Training Programme	Safety Training	The occupational safety and health personnel shall be task to compile a list of mandatory WSH training courses for the identified stakeholders based on the statutory training requirements stipulated under the factories Act and it’s subsidiary legislation. The list shall be forwarded to the Human Resource department for their follow up on arranging the stakeholders for the required training courses with the relevant line management. Line management task to gather information on the stakeholders training during the employee performance appraisal using pre determined training needs analysis checklist. Completed checklist will be forwarded to human resource department in view of the confidentiality of the data involved and human resource department will conduct the training needs analysis and present the stakeholder training needs analysis using Gantt chart
Hazard Identification Programme	Hazard Analysis	The occupational safety and health personnel shall be task to review the effectiveness of all risk assessment conducted using pre determined checklist to establish whether the risk assessment team have the know how and understand the risk assessment methodology to conduct an effective risk assessment
Risk Assessment Programme	Hazard Analysis	The occupational safety and health personnel shall be task to review the effectiveness of all risk assessment conducted using pre determined checklist to establish whether the risk assessment team have the know how and understand the risk assessment methodology to conduct an effective risk assessment
Risk Control Programme	Hazard Analysis	The occupational safety and health personnel shall be task to review the effectiveness of all risk assessment conducted using pre determined checklist to establish whether the risk assessment team have the know how and understand the risk assessment methodology to conduct an effective risk assessment