OSHA does not require that all employers hold safety meetings, but even if you are not in a category that is federally mandated, maybe you should consider holding a regular safety meeting anyway!
Why Hold A Regular Safety Meeting?
The cost of injury prevention is far less than the cost of an injury. A safe workplace attracts and retains quality employees, operates more efficiently and enjoys a healthy bottom line. The business and the workers thrive in a safe, healthy, respectful and caring environment.
Short, regularly scheduled Safety meetings tend to keep safety on top of all of your workers’ minds. It contributes to their overall success by preventing accident, reducing job site risk and making sure all of your workers make it home safely at the end of each day. So hold safety meetings!
The Top Four Keys To A Successful Safety Meeting
Keep It Informal
A safety meeting is an opportunity to discuss safety in an informal setting. It’s intended to be participatory, encouraging questions and discussion and drawing on workers’ experience. It’s not a lecture and there are no tests. By keeping it informal, workers are less likely to dread the weekly meeting and are more likely to gain the knowledge you are teaching.
Keep It Short
Make sure your safety meetings are no more than 10-20 minutes. Any longer and you’ve lost everyone’s attention.
Keep It Interactive
The meeting will always work best with the element of participation. Make sure your workers feel comfortable enough to share a personal story about this topic. Or add one of your own. Get people involved.
Keep It New
If we are just reviewing information we all know over and over, you have just lost your audience. Even the most safety-interested person will tune out the fourth time they have to hear about aerial lift safety. Introduce new topics each meeting. Feel free to spend a minute or so reviewing, but make sure there is always new information presented.
Engaging your workers in concise, content-rich safety meetings can save your business money, and can save your workers’ life.