707 Effective OSH Committee Meetings

Safety Committee Communications

Clear communications is essential for the success of any safety committee meeting. It ensures that important information is shared and understood. Without open and accurate communication, key information may be misunderstood or lost, and the committee’s goals can suffer as a result.

Communication is Dynamic

The most basic communication model explains that communication always involves two roles and two processes: the sender and the receiver.

Basic Communications Model

The most basic communication model explains that communication always involves four parts: the sender, the message, the channel, and the receiver.

• Sender: The person who creates and sends the message. The sender is responsible for choosing the right words, tone, and method of communication to ensure the message is clear.
• Message: The information, idea, or feeling the sender wants to share. This could include spoken words, written notes, charts, or even nonverbal cues like body language.
• Channel: The medium through which the message is delivered from the sender to the receiver. Channels can include face-to-face conversation, phone calls, emails, written reports, or visual presentations (such as charts or safety posters).
• Receiver: The person (or people) who receive, interpret, and provide feedback. The receiver brings their own experiences, understanding, and attention, which can affect how they interpret and respond to the message.

In a meeting, this process is a dynamic, two-way exchange. Communication tends to be slower when messages are written or exchanged by phone. However, in a face-to-face meeting, the sender is speaking directly to others, who are actively receiving, interpreting, and quickly providing both verbal (spoken) and nonverbal (body language) feedback. Communication between two people is always a dynamic, nearly simultaneous, two-way process.

Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.