My experience at Health and safety committee meeting has been great, throughout this experience, I have really learned so much from it which helped me to express my concerns about health and safety issues in the workplace and report any accident that happened in the workplace. One of the most effective ways of consultation is the health and safety committee which helps to discuss any recommendation are seen to be implemented and both employer and employee must participate in order to have effective health and safety committee meeting. Moreover, there were the positive aspects of the meeting such as bring awareness of the importance of health and safety culture, the ability to listen to one another and to respect each other’s opinion. I enjoy communicating and meeting new people so this experience has only prepared me on becoming a better OHS officer.

The main functions of a health and safety committee members are to:

• Make it easy for the organization and workers to cooperate on ways to ensure workers’ health and safety at the workplace.
• Assist in developing standards, rules, and policies or procedures for work health and safety.
• Make recommendations relating to work health and safety and report all accidents in the workplace.
• Carry out other tasks that are agreed between the organization and the committee.

The organization must:

Consult with the health and safety committee members about health and safety matters. Also, Allow each member of the health and safety committee to spend as much time as necessary to attend meetings or carry out functions as a member of the committee Also, Provide the health and safety committee with the necessary information to perform its functions, including information and reports relating to accidents ,hazards and the health and safety of workers at the workplace.

How to improve health and safety behavior in the workplace..?

It was shown that an effective health and safety committee can improve the health and safety behavior at work by :

• Demonstrating management commitment.
• Promoting health and safety.
• Developing competence.
• Keeping up-to-date with legal requirements.
• Training in health and safety
• Communicating effectively
• Consulting with the workforce.  

Firstly, We should encourage the workers to set their own health and safety goals in order to improve health and safety behavior throughout the organization. It is so important to give positive feedback to the workers in the workplace. In order for the organization to develop a positive culture, it must have effective health and safety management systems, promote health and safety standards and have effective communication throughout the organization. Also, identifying the risks and hazards in the workplace and write down reports about all incidents and accidents at work and the organization must develop training programmers for the workers to ensure their safety while performing their job which will improve their behavior.

Secondly, Positive management commitment will help to enhance health and safety culture and ensure the health and safety standards has been implemented in the workplace. Also, it will reduce the rate of accident and work-related illness. Furthermore, having established relevant health and safety standards it is important to be promoted in the organization. Moreover, the organization must ensure the employees are competent to be able to do their duties and responsibilities in the organization, therefore, they should have a proper qualification, skills that job is looking for and they must have the training to ensure their safety in the workplace. Also, the organization should have systems to identify local requirement and keep up with the date with changes in the law ensure the organization has legal compliance. moreover, the organization must provide job-specific training which helps to ensure the safety of workers at the workplace.

The importance of positive health and safety culture at work

First of all, let’s define the health and safety culture in the organization which is the development stage of the organization in the health and safety management at a particular time. The organization must raise awareness for the importance of health and safety culture at work. Also, a positive health and safety culture need the involvement of employers and employees in order to have successful quality systems. Furthermore, the workers must comply and understand the health and safety standards which helps to improve the financial and overall performance at work.

There are specific elements we must have in order to achieve positive health and safety at work such as:

• Leadership and commitment to health and safety throughout the organization
• A detailed assessment of the health and safety risks in the organization and the development of appropriate control and monitoring systems.
• Relevant workers training programmes must be provided in the workplace.
• Systems monitoring for processes, procedures, and equipment at work.
• The prompt investigation of all the incidents and accidents and reports must be detailed.

Also, the organization with a high rate of accident and high sickness rate among the workers is more likely to have poor health and safety culture at work. there are many human factors that affect health and safety culture in the workplace for example :

• The organization factor.
• The job factor.
• The individual (personal) factor.

Furthermore, the organization must check if they have an effective health and safety management system and positive health and safety culture. A positive health and safety culture means that the organization has a well-developed OHS management system which helps to improve the behavior in the workplace. Also, human failures affect the job which is classified as
either errors or violations.

In conclusion, I think the joint health and safety committee it’s an effective way to improve the health and safety culture and work behavior. Also, communication is the key to having effective health and safety system in the workplace and the committee provides a link between workers and employers which helps to identify any health and safety problems and try to resolve it. it’s noticeable that having health and safety committee has a lot of benefits such as reduce the accidents, raise awareness of health and safety will improve and it helps to contribute to the sense of teamwork. also, it helps the workers could express their concerns and have them addressed.