Stephen Lynch, Senior Global Health & Safety Manager at LinkedIn, set the tone for the day with a keynote speech discussing the evolution of health and safety at LinkedIn. From there, other topics discussed included Works Councils and employee engagement, workplace safety initiatives, monitoring progress through EHS metrics, and managing occupational health programs and psychosocial risk. Below, we give a more in-depth look into some of these discussions.
Collaboration and Challenges of Works Councils and Employee Engagement
Increased engagements with works councils has led to the establishment of new groups and stakeholders. But how can EHS professionals best collaborate with and leverage the impact these groups can have, while maintaining compliance with differing legislation? The primary purpose of a works council, elected by employees to represent the workers, is to ensure that employees have a formal channel to voice their concerns, contribute to decision-making processes, and collaborate with management to improve safety and workplace conditions.
These employee focused groups were put on the back burner during COVID as EHS teams helped their companies focus on mitigating COVID related risk. Following COVID, employers have discovered that there is a need to be more intentional around implementation of requirements related to works councils. Works councils are required in a number of countries across EMEA.
Panelists Michael Fleming (Director, Health & Safety EMEA & LTAM - Salesforce) and Eithne Clinton (EMEA Environmental Health & Safety Manager - Google) offered insights into how they are engaging and collaborating with Works Councils and the common challenges they see.
The discussion initially centered around the difficulties of getting hybrid employees to engage and participate in works councils. The hybrid work environment makes it hard to find employees willing to engage in improving physical workspaces, when they don’t spend as much time in the office as they used to. To make it worth employees time, the Works Council’s needs to provide tangible value and impact.
Participants noted that the forums are often used as an opportunity to raise non-EHS issues and grievances. As a result, EHS teams must be diplomatic and act as conduits for this information, channeling it to the appropriate internal departments for consideration and action.
Secondly, the challenges posed by remote and hybrid work models make it difficult to get meaningful engagement. Works councils specifically expect concrete actions, so EHS teams must be well-organized and prepared to provide updates and progress reports at each meeting. In certain situations, works councils and health and safety committees can be real allies, proactively organizing local compliance audits and other initiatives.
Despite the challenges of the new hybrid and remote workplaces, the works councils remain vital communication tools that ensure employees engage and contribute to helping EHS teams identify real concerns and opportunities to make the workplaces better.
By collaborating with these councils and being well-prepared for meetings, EHS teams can effectively address concerns and foster a productive workplace environment.
Promoting Workplace Safety through WELL Health Safety Rating
Next, the discussion moved to WELL Health Safey Rating, also known as WELL HSR. Jess Beckwith (Senior Project Manager - Antea Group UK) and Alex Hammonds (Global EHS Program Manager - LinkedIn) shared their approach in establishing a WELL Health Safety Rating across the global LinkedIn portfolio.
WELL, launched in 2014 in the USA, is a building standard and certification system developed by the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) that focuses on enhancing human health and well-being through the design of every building. In a response to COVID, IWBI took a sub-set of features from the main standard that were more closely related to health and safety and created WELL HSR.
The idea was that during the era of return-to-work post-COVID, WELL HSR could help companies commit to and demonstrate that their buildings were safe and healthy places in which to spend time. The strategies were informed by over 20,000 researchers and practitioners, including 600 experts from the IWBI Task Force on COVID-19. The Rating comes with a physical Health-Safety seal that can be displayed at the front of a building to prove it follows these evidence-based strategies.
In addition, it is scalable globally for any organization with many different offices, it links to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and it integrates into WELL, with reduced fees and streamlined effort if a building is already WELL certified.
All in all, WELL HSR is a great way of proving that your organization has initiatives in place to make the buildings safe. It also promotes top-down buy in, can boost onsite engagement among employees, and continues to remain relevant as it can be updated as the EHS landscape changes.
Read more insights from the meeting in the full blog below.
Read More Here!
