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Safety Moments
Wednesday 30th August 2023
Introduction to Safety moments
As an employer, creating a safe workplace for your employees is both a legal and moral obligation. When you have a safe workplace you are more likely to have higher rates of productivity and less absenteeism.
It is also your duty to keep your staff informed of any potential health and safety risks. This is critical when building a safety culture within your organisation as it can help to bring new enthusiasm and awareness to the topic of health and safety.
What is a safety moment?
A safety moment is a brief discussion or exercise which is focused on various safety-oriented topics. These discussions or exercises are at held at dedicated times and are designed to focus attention on particular risks as well as general safety. Safety moments should be short and sharp in their duration. This is because their purpose is to get employees actively thinking about and identifying any potential workplace hazards and then understanding what steps they should take to avoid them. As the name implies, safety moments should only take a few moments and should have clear and concise information with easy to understand and functional steps which your employees can remember and follow.
Lots of companies have safety moments as standing items on a meeting agenda and carry them out at a weekly team meeting or at the start of each day. This is dependent on the industry however. It must be noted that safety moments are not designed to take the place of formal safety training but instead should be used to reinforce such learning.
Safety moments are especially common in industries where there is a high risk of workplace injury or death such as workplaces where employees are exposed to numerous hazards and risks. Safety moments can however be tailored to just about any industry.
What are the benefits of safety moments?
The benefits of safety moments include but are not limited to:
- Preventing people from being overwhelmed with too much information all at once.
- Building a strong safety culture within your organisation.
- Being able to communicate the consequences of not following safety protocols.
- Being able to reinforce your workplace and health and safety policies.
How to make safety moments successful in your organisation
- Schedule safety moments at a frequency that suits your companies needs.
- Use visual to help boost engagement and understanding.
- Always ensure that there are actionable takeaways that your employees can use in their day-to-day lives.
- Include remote workers in your safety tips by sending video messages.
- Use safety moments as part of other safety awareness campaigns to reinforce messages.
10 Safety moment topic ideas
1. Lifting heavy objects
2. Ergonomics
3. Workplace stress
4. Awareness of emergency exists and routes
5. Slips, trips and falls
6. Wearing appropriate clothing
7. Workplace drug and alcohol misuse
8. Why proper rest is important
9. Workplace violence
10. Driver safety