Simply Put – Employee involvement in health and safety

Employee involvement in health and safety

We often talk about the benefits of encouraging a positive health and safety culture in the workplace. In this blog post, we’re going to be looking at one of the ways that this can be encouraged; employee involvement in health and safety decisions.

How can you involve employees in health and safety at work?

It might seem obvious, but consulting your employees on workplace health and safety is often overlooked or forgotten. Strong communication and worker involvement can bring about important changes to the health and safety culture of a business.

Here are a few simple things that companies with health employee involvement do:

• Talking
  Communication between employers and employees about matters of health and safety are important. Areas that need improving can be identified, and successes can be monitored.
• Listen
  If employees listen to the company’s health and safety concerns, they can better understand why safety policies are in place. By listening to their employees, employers can identify hazards before they cause accidents.
• Raise concerns together
  By encouraging active employee involvement, both parties can be encouraged to raise health and safety concerns.
• Make decisions together
  By making decisions and discussing issues together, both parties can better understand the health and safety procedures, and why precautions are in place.

Why is employee involvement important? 

Sometimes, employers feel dubious about encouraging workers to get involved in health and safety decisions, but the benefits can be far reaching – both for the employer and the employee.

• Lower accident rates
  The HSE have found that accident rates are lower in companies where employees feel like they have a say in health and safety matters (14%) compared to workplaces with no employee involvement (26%).
• More positive health and safety climate
  In workplaces with employee involvement, the HSE found that 77% of employees felt encouraged to raise H&S concerns, whereas only 20% felt that way in poor health and safety environments.
• Better control of risks
  Control of slips, trips and falls was found to be effective in 76% of workplaces where employees felt they were involved in decisions, compared to 40% if they felt they were rarely or never consulted.
• Greater awareness of risks
  By involving workers in health and safety discussions, employees are more aware of the risks of the workplace and can take better care around hazards.
• Improved morale
  By involving employees in workplace health and safety decisions, employers can demonstrate that they do care about their employees’ welfare and wellbeing, which can lead to improved workplace morale. Improved morale brings about its own benefits, such as improved productivity and lower staff turnover rates.

Therefore, employers have a lot to gain by encouraging employee involvement in health and safety decisions in the workplace. Encouraging a positive health and safety culture can bring about several benefits and companies stand to gain a lot from employee engagement with issues of occupational health and safety.

Read more from the HSE about employee involvement here.

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