The institution conducts on-site visits among its member enterprises, with clearly defined objectives and including consulting services focused on specific sectors of economic activity.
Guideline code
PREV_03600
Mechanism
Mechanism
- The management should clearly document the role of prevention experts, including those focused on particular sectors of economic activity, and ensure their required competences are developed.
- The management should ensure there is a training plan, both for new prevention experts and to keep all experts up to date with new developments, including in specific sectors of economic activity.
- The prevention experts should schedule site visits according to the known frequency of incidents, which often depends on the specific risk category of an enterprise. Visits should include investigation of any history of accidents or exposures leading to occupational diseases.
- The prevention experts should periodically update the agenda for site visits, taking into account factors such as potential hazards, the frequency and severity of recorded accidents or occupational diseases and developments in specific economic sectors.
- Consultation should be based on the “one-client contact” principle in order to achieve targets for the frequency of visits. The prevention experts should have regular contact with the enterprises covered, based on a list of specific risk criteria.
- All prevention experts should be given special training to help them communicate effectively with employers.
- If the institution runs a prevention campaign, the prevention experts should make use of on-site visits to communicate the campaign message and motivate employers to organize associated activities for their employees.
- All prevention experts should regularly report on which members have been consulted and the reasons for each site visit.
- The prevention department should collect, analyse and evaluate data on site visits by the prevention experts to gain insight into unsafe conditions and identify the causes of accidents and occupational diseases and the questions most frequently raised during consultations, in order to periodically realign prevention strategies and resource allocation.
- The management should establish a permanent reporting and quality assurance system to continuously analyse and improve the consultation service and ensure its efficiency.
Structure
Structure
- The board should ensure there is a mandate for all consulting services conducted by the institution’s prevention experts.
- The management should define how on-site visits are to be conducted and their objectives. It should specify legitimate reasons for consultation (e.g. accident and occupational disease investigation, management requests for consultation, acting on information from employees on unsafe conditions, consultation and research in specific sectors of economic activity).
- The management should analyse the number of operations, employees and risk groups, and the frequency of accidents and occupational diseases, to define the number of site visits which should be made within a specified time frame, including in specific areas of economic activity. Special priority should be given to small and medium-sized enterprises.
- The board should allocate resources to maintain appropriately qualified personnel in the consulting services, including enough prevention experts to also provide sector-specific on-site prevention services at regular intervals.
- The board should ensure that all prevention experts have the required qualifications and skills (e.g. academic qualifications plus work experience in a relevant industry) to fulfil their specialist responsibilities, including sector-specific consultancy and inspection services.
Title HTML
Guideline 27. Setting the framework for consulting services
Type
Guideline_1
Weight
40