Have your safety meetings become a little flat? If you’re struggling to keep workers engaged in your safety presentations or you’re just tired of trotting out the same format in your toolbox talks, here are a few ways you can refresh your next safety training session.

Ditch the PowerPoint
PowerPoint can make a good presentation that much better, but it can also lull some audiences to sleep. If you regularly use PowerPoint or other presentation aids in your safety training then your workers could start to tune it—and you—out. Ditching the multimedia can help you focus on making a direct connection with your trainees and help them focus on the content of your message rather than on how you deliver it.

Ask direct questions
The best way to get someone’s attention is to address them directly. Calling someone by name and asking them a straightforward question about the topic under discussion will draw their attention back to your presentation, and even if you can’t get to everyone, letting your audience know that you might call on them to answer a question may be enough to get them to better focus on your safety talk.

Keep it short
Our short-term memory can only hold a handful of things at once. If you find that your company’s employees are suffering from information fatigue then keep your presentations short by focusing on a few key points and then spending the rest of the time helping workers reinforce safety habits.

Keep it relevant
Every safety trainer knows that their material is important—but trainees are more likely to pay attention if they see the safety training as immediately applicable to whatever work they have to do that week. Vector Construction, a concrete repair company, is a great example of keeping safety talks relevant. They change sites often and as their safety manager reveals in this case study, every new job begins with a safety talk that discusses the hazards at hand.

If you know your workers will be at increased risk of particular human factors, like rushing because a tight production deadline is looming, then consider making that the focus of your safety talk and clearly communicating to workers that they should be mindful of the risk.

There are plenty of ways to shake up your next training talk, from changing how you present to including a bit of humor. Taking a few minutes to work on refreshing your safety presentations could help your audience stay more engaged in what you have to say—and end up being safer as a result.