Many employees are motivated to join a consultative committee in order to make their organisation a better place to work. Consultative Committees are run to implement strategies for employees to put in place effective OHS systems. They aim to achieve communication channels across the organisation to ensure each individual concerned is aware of the OHS procedures as well as any risks that may arise are immediately recognised and reported and either controlled or eliminated.

The challenge that has been recognised, however, is how committee members can best contribute their knowledge and skills to the consultation process. The committee’s procedures and decision-making processes may be regarded as a challenging experience for those who have recently been nominated for the consultation committee. 

This daunting experience can affect the organisation as participants may be unclear just how they can make sure their views are given reasonable consideration, and how they can ensure that valuable information is translated effectively to the consultation team.

Members are advised to keep an open mind to the opinions and perspectives of others and continue to understand the importance of the universal goal of the consultation committee to recognise, control and eliminate work place hazards and promote workplace safety for their fellow employees.

One of IOH’s customers recently put forward a request to develop small group workshops to assist consultative committee members understand the dynamics of human communication both within and external to the consultative committee and to recognise the group processes which impact on a committee’s capacity to perform its tasks.

After conducting a workshop, it was found that the workshops assisted participants to identify their specific individual role in making a contribution to the committee, in terms of their technical, communication and team skills. One important theme that ran through the workshop was the benefit of providing clear, timely feedback to employees to ensure that they are informed about the way the specific information they have provided has been utilised by the committee in arriving at a recommendation or plan of action.

The workshop was deemed very successful by the participants. They incorporated realistic scenarios based on industrial settings to explore strategies for mapping problems so that the perspectives of all stake holders could be held in view while the committee considered a range of workable solutions.

Sue Milne (Manager IOH Psychology Services 2010)

For more information on how IOH can customise courses or personally assist your organisation contact your local IOH office.