Regular safety meetings play an important role in communicating your company’s safety program information. They are a vital means of providing training for your employees about their workplace hazards and expected safe work habits. Safety meetings are also a great way to provide a quick refresher of previous training and reinforce the safety culture of your operation.
Emphasis on the ‘Sleepy’
Safety meetings have a bad reputation. You’ve heard all the jokes, maybe even made a few yourself.
- “Wake me when it’s over.”
- “Coffee break!”
- “Oh, good! Time for my daily catnap.”
- “These meetings are so boring I feel a few more brain cells die every time we have one.”
- “Another safety meeting? Ok. I guess I could use a little more beauty rest.”
Whatever the wisecrack, each is usually based on the same seed of truth: safety meetings are usually boring. But the good news is that they don’t have to be.
Safety Meetings Can – and Should – Be Fun!
Safety meetings don’t have to be drudgery, although they should drive employees toward achievement of safety goals and retention of important information. Let’s take a look at some ways to jazz up your meetings to make them fun while still being relevant and meaningful:
- Share fun photos taken by employees from around your operation
- Give employees the opportunity to lead discussion by sharing stories of specific dangers and close calls
- Include props, such as hard hats, hammers, and other tools from your operation
- Have a safety and health mascot
- Offer incentives to departments or individual employees who are practicing safe work habits
- Incorporate humor
Safety meetings are an important part of your operation’s safety culture. Mixing things up on a regular basis is a good way to more fully engage your employees to keep them thinking about safe practices. Remember, fun and humor are tools, too, so use them wisely.
