1. Workers won't volunteer for the committee
Possible reasons: workers may be afraid of appearing to criticize management, or don't see any benefit in serving.
Solutions: promote the committee and its successes. Have the committee give short departmental safety talks. Hold recruitment sessions in the lunch room or recognition events for members.
2. Management members don't attend meetings regularly
Possible reasons: managers may see meetings as a waste of time, have a poor attitude toward safety or not know what's expected of them, especially if they lack health and safety training.
Solutions: give management members specific safety tasks. Recommend basic health and safety training for managers, and team-building training for the committee as a whole.
3. Workers and supervisors barely know the committee exists
Possible reasons: people may not know who sits on the committee. The committee may not publicize its successes, and members doing inspections may not talk to workers and supervisors.
Solutions: explain the committee's role in new employee orientation and introduce new workers to the members for their area. Rotate members often. Hold safety events to raise awareness.
4. The committee only reacts to injuries and incidents
Possible reasons: members may not understand their roles or what's expected of them, lack health and safety training, not know how to set goals, or lack passion for safety.
Solutions: have the company's safety department meet with the committee to discuss goals and objectives. Gather information through informal surveys of workers and supervisors. Spend one full meeting agreeing on goals for the year and an action plan: set priorities and target dates, measure performance against objectives and report progress.
5. Meetings go on for hours but achieve little
Possible reasons: the chair doesn't keep the meeting focused (and may lack experience running meetings), the agenda isn't planned in advance, information is missing, or members lack problem-solving skills.
Solutions: bring in experts to show chairs how to run effective meetings. Have the co-chairs meet beforehand to plan the agenda, including decisions and action points for each item. Don't spend time discussing an item when more information is needed before deciding.
6. A few members do all the talking
Possible reasons: some people like to be in control.
Solutions: have members raise their hands and speak one at a time. Evaluate the results of each meeting.
7. Nobody knows what the committee is supposed to do
Possible reasons: members haven't been trained on the committee's roles and functions, there are no formal terms of reference (or they're incomplete), or the committee has too low a profile.
Solutions: assign the committee a sponsor, ideally someone with enough authority and close links to senior management, to help clarify roles and provide resources.
8. Discussion is all complaints, no solutions
Possible reasons: the chair isn't facilitating discussion properly, or members lack problem-solving training, don't know how to draft recommendations and don't call in experts.
Solutions: train members in problem solving. Have co-chairs meet in advance to plan, set goals and set priorities. End each discussion item with an action item.
9. Members have only basic health and safety training
Possible reason: their everyday jobs don't revolve around health and safety.
Solutions: assess each member's knowledge, experience and training. Do a needs assessment and bring in an experienced trainer. Consider training the whole committee together to build a common vision.
10. Meetings are boring, with the same agenda every month
Possible reasons: little or no planning, members aren't engaged, the committee isn't part of the health and safety system, or workers and supervisors don't bring issues to committee members.
Solutions: engage every member through teamwork. Make members responsible for health and safety action plans, for developing and monitoring annual activities and goals, and for building employee safety awareness.
JHSC Certification Part One and Part Two training gives members the competence to run and take part in an effective committee, and the result is accident prevention.