Engage with your workers
You get better health and safety if you all take ownership for getting everyone home healthy and safe. The way to do this is to engage with your workers and have ways for them to participate.
It’s essential for business owners to engage with their workers and have ways for them to participate in health and safety. This is because:
- workers are a business’s eyes and ears, especially when it comes to risk
- workers are more likely to work safely if they take part in health and safety thinking
- it encourages everyone to take ownership health and safety becomes easier when the workload is shared
- it’s your legal responsibility to make it happen
- it will improve your health and safety practices.
Managing health and safety at work
It’s all about two-way communication.
You must:
- ask for, listen to and consider the views of workers when making decisions that may affect their health and safety
- explain to workers the result of any health and safety decision promptly
- have clear ways for workers to raise their own suggestions for improving health and safety.
Workers must have:
- information about any health and safety issue, and time to think about it
- the opportunity to freely speak their mind about health and safety issues
- the ability to contribute to health and safety decision-making processes
- understand health and safety decisions.
Where to include your workers
Make sure workers can contribute on health and safety matters which may affect them. These include:
- identifying risks
- making decisions about reasonably practicable ways to address risks
- deciding if workers’ welfare facilities are good enough
- proposed changes which could affect their health or safety
- procedures for information and training
- ways your business involves its people in health and safety.
Health and safety representatives and committees
Any business can:
- arrange for one of its workers to be a health and safety representative
- set up a health and safety committee.
Some business must have a rep, or consider a committee, if workers request it. These are businesses:
- with more than 20 workers, or
- that the law classes as high risk.
You can still agree to a health and safety representative, even if legally you don't have to. It's a great way to get your people involved in health and safety at the workplace.
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