At their best, these mass communications are relevant, proactive, and efficient. Unfortunately, these safety conversations often fall short of such a goal. They turn into another safety management burden when they are designed to do the opposite. Using a targeted and automated, yet still engaging, approach is the answer.
Toolbox talks, or safety bulletins, are an essential way to get the word out quickly with little fuss; however, that process becomes cumbersome when a supervisor is tasked with the job of disseminating what is typically an email with attachment –– only to be further tasked with tracking down repeat offenders who choose to ignore important alerts, time and time again.
Sound about right?
Your Toolbox Topic Program HELPS if it:
- Establishes clear information channels in an expeditious way for the Safety Department, Quality Assurance Area, Human Resources, and/or Operations Team.
- Provides the additional tools needed to maintain and even improve existing procedures.
- Builds a positive safety culture.
- Is easily replicable with minimal extra effort.
Your Toolbox Topic Program HURTS if it:
- Adds more to administrative workload than it alleviates.
- Puts the onus on supervisors to ensure employee acknowledgements rather than employees.
- Becomes a one-sided notice rather than an interesting, memorable message to encourage discussion and inquiry.
- Happens sporadically with little opportunity to repurpose, build upon, or reference prior content.
What is “Next Level,” and How Do I Get There?
Proact can help if you are developing a solution, shopping for one, or simply looking to refine your existing Toolbox Topic program. Here are three questions to consider:
- Are you assigning the Toolbox Topic directly to the employee? This frees management from having to continuously chase down compliance. Instead, the responsibility returns to the originally intended audience: the employee. Morale and bandwidth increase for administration when no longer consumed by follow up or tracking down antiquated sign-in sheets.
- How are you solving the problem of those who ignore important safety huddles? Always manage by exception. This means reporting should display only those who did not participate in a Toolbox Topic. Ideally, reports should reveal trends in those supervisors and employees who are (and more importantly) are not engaging.
- Ultimately, is your Toolbox Talk even worth reading? Sending the same old tired email with attachment will likely be tuned out, even if sign-off occurs. Using a tool that simplifies the job of multimedia integration is critical as attention spans grow shorter and shorter. Videos, GIFs, links, and memes go a long way as attention spans grow shorter and shorter –– helping to ensure the messages you not only want but need received are effectively heard.
Do not be discouraged if your current approach isn’t working. Let Proact assist in transforming your Toolbox Talks program. Contact us today, and let us help take your program to the next level.
