Employee Involvement Rationale

Employee involvement and participation in the structure and operation of safety and health programs will foster increased and potentially lasting awareness. 

Developing a Safety and Health Program, Second Edition 

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Some organizational cultures inhibit the kinds of behavior needed to reduce industrial injuries. Getting employees involved in safety is difficult within the context of top-down rules, regulations, and programs supported almost exclusively with the threat of negative consequences. In contrast, employee involvement is much more likely with top-down support of safety processes developed, owned, and continuously improved upon by work teams educated to understand relevant rationale and principles. 

OSHA/USEPA requires employers, such as the chemical industry service sector, to perform an initial process hazard analysis (PHA) on processes covered by PSM/RMP standards. The PHA must be appropriate to the complexity of the process and must identify, evaluate, and control the hazards involved in the process. Employers are required to determine and document the priority order for conducting process hazard analyses based on a rationale that includes such considerations as extent of the process hazards, number of potentially affected employees, age of the process, and operating history of the process. 

Are at moderate to high risk of an injury incident Daily or weekly Frequent observations increase the rationale for involving employees in observations of their work areas May decrease frequency as an area improves its safety record... 

Long-term employee participation requires understanding and belief in the principles behind the process. Employees must also perceive that they "own" the procedures that make the process work. For this to happen it is necessary to teach the principles and rationale first (as done in this Handbook), and then work with participants to develop specific process procedures. This creates the perception of ownership and leads to long-term involvement. 

Obviously, the kind of safety consultant depicted in Figure 8.1 stifles employee ownership and involvement. Yet, so many safety efforts start as off-the-shelf programs. A videotape is shown and ready-made workbooks are followed to train step-by-step procedures. Much more involvement occurs when consultants begin a new safety effort by teaching rationale and principles and then guiding participants through the development of specific procedures. Subsequently, people want to be trained on the implementation procedures. 

Training should be considered only after critical contextual and task variables have been analyzed and corrected. It is usually a good idea to include some education witir the training, meaning relevant theory, principles, and rationale are presented to justify the step-by-step procedures taught and practiced. Adequate education also enables worker customization of procedures to fit a particular work context. This, in turn, leads to employee ownership of the process, feelings of responsibility, and increased involvement. 

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