This is an excerpt from our free toolbox tips guide.
If you deliver safety talks regularly then you’ve probably run into a ‘staleness’ issue—how do you keep talks fresh and interesting if you have to discuss the same problems over and over again?
The most direct solution is to expand the scope of your toolbox talks to include off-the-job stories. Almost every issue that affects workers is caused or made worse by human factors like rushing, frustration, fatigue and complacency that cause people to take their eyes and mind off task.
These same issues plague people at home and on the road too.
Look beyond the workplace
The National Safety Council says that workers are nearly 3 times more likely to get injured and 14 times more likely to die from unintentional injuries off the job. The goal of toolbox talks is to make employees safer so address where they’re getting hurt most often—at home and on the road. You can still focus on workplace hazards but mix in at-home examples to expand your message and stay relevant to employees.
Discussing safety at home and on the road may seem like a bit of a sideways approach to workplace safety but it’s effective. It gets employees thinking about safe behavior in a broader context, which will keep safety at the top of their mind. You’ll have more examples to draw on, which keeps things fresh. And you’ll deal with a major area of risk too.
Give it a try. Include a relevant story about a time you or someone you know was hurt at home. Or ask how a safety practice like wearing PPE might apply when doing work around the house.
You could even outline a few safe driving tips that you gave to your teenager when they first got behind the wheel—mentioning good driving behavior in any context will raise awareness among your workers.
Motivation starts at home
Every adult thinks they’re safe enough already. But ask them about their family, their kids in particular, and they’ll say there’s no such thing as “safe enough”. Workers will participate more if they understand that safety skills can be taught to their kids…once the workers learn them first.
