Even minor changes in corporate safety programs are usually measured in months or years, not days. And safety leadership isn’t just about establishing new procedures or placing a huge order for new PPE. Instead, it’s about motivating employees to do their best to reduce the risk of injury.
In that light, here are several ways for safety professionals to make meaningful improvements right away and earn a “quick win” for safety.
Clarify expectations
Everybody likes to know what’s expected of them. Unfortunately, many employees feel like their job expectations are often unclear and this can have repercussions on their approach to workplace safety.
Research conducted by Gallup found that working with employees to set work priorities and then holding them to account for their performance can have a notable impact in how productive they are. Even better, it can have a dramatic impact on safety by reducing workplace safety incidents by up to 20%. Take some time to ensure everyone is clear on the expectations that come with the job, from productivity to safety performance.
Refresh training
It’s hard to understate the value of fresh, engaging training—or how quickly it can become stale. If training seems new then workers are more likely to pay attention and remember the training afterwards when it matters most. But once people have seen the same presentation and handouts a few times they become much more likely to tune out.
Refreshing your safety training sessions can have a big impact on knowledge retention and is something you can undertake right away. Often, a few minor tweaks to presentation visuals or style are enough to stave off employee complacency during your next safety training session.
Address attention
When employees are paying attention to what they’re doing, their risk of injury goes down. When their eyes and minds wander or complacency sets in, their risk of injury goes up. So what can you do to increase their attention?
Toolbox talks, frequent informal safety conversations and a regular rotation of safety posters can help boost employee attention. But a survey conducted by EHS Daily Advisor found that 85% of respondents feel that measures like these will only provide a temporary reduction in specific injury issues.
Training programs and other attention reinforcement initiatives are the best way to help employees sustain their focus on safe behavior. These programs can take long enough to implement so they probably don’t qualify as a “quick win”, but it’s easy to start investigating them right away by registering for one of SafeStart’s free on-demand webinars.