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Section 2 - Outcome 2 - 3-4pts

There are consultation procedures in place but these may not be working effectively or capturing all of your workers’ input.

Your responses indicate that you do consult with your workers but that it is inconsistent or that you may not reach all of your workers. You may also not provide feedback or consult with all relevant workers about health and safety matters.

What you can do to improve:

Make sure that your consultation process is suitable for the workplace

Your consultation process may need to be changed to take into account the different needs of your workers, the size of your business, the location of your site or sites if you have more than one, shift arrangements, transport workers or workers who work at client sites or any other special arrangements you may have with your workers. Some workers may not be able to attend regular meetings and may be missing vital information about their safety or changes in the workplace. You may need to introduce alternative methods of consulting with these workers.

Encourage workers to consult and always provide feedback

Sometimes workers can appear to lack the desire to consult but that may be as a result of the process of consultation rather than the consultation itself.

You can help address this by:

  • Scheduling safety meetings as a priority. If safety meetings are held at the end of the day or a shift, you can run out of time and workers may feel rushed or too tired to contribute. Schedule safety meetings at the start of the day or shift so that there is enough time and workers are fresh and alert.
  • Show that you value your workers’ views. You can develop a method to demonstrate to your workers that their concerns and feedback are considered. This could be in the form of an action plan or some other method that clearly shows you are listening. Sometimes workers are told about decisions rather than being consulted. If your workers believe their concerns are ignored they will be reluctant to participate in the consultation process. Don’t make safety decisions without regard to your workers’ feedback. If a decision is made that is contrary to worker views, provide reasons that clearly outline why.
  • Involve your entire workforce. Some of your workers may be unaware of their WHS responsibilities. Train all of your workers in WHS consultation procedures, including your supervisors and managers. Workers from non-English speaking backgrounds and those with special needs should be consulted individually to ensure their concerns are addressed.
  • To be effective, consultation needs to be consistent and inclusive and safety issues need to be addressed in a timely way. Discuss safety concerns as part of your regular workplace meetings rather than ad-hoc meetings. Making safety part of the regular agenda and having meaningful discussion will go a long way to integrating safety into the normal business culture and demonstrating to your workers that it is an important aspect of business operations.

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