FSM Article on Strategies to Integrate Safety Training into Everything, Everywhere
You might have noticed that UG2 talks about safety a great deal. That is no accident. In fact, making safety practices a constant topic of conversation is quite intentional and impactful. Threading safety-related topics through all of our initiatives, large and small, is one reason we have consistently maintained high safety ratings across the company, even as we’ve expanded exponentially.
UG2 director of environmental health and safety Adam Rabesa delves into this strategy in his article, Making Safety Training Ubiquitous, published in the November 2024 issue of Facility Safety Management magazine.
Following are highlights from the five best practices Adam discusses in his article.
- Open every meeting with a safety tip. Adam shares how creating a routine where you start daily meetings with a recommended safety practice helps set the tone and reminds employees that safety takes precedence in all we do. This strategy is even more effective if you involve everyone on the team by assigning a different employee to pitch their tip each day.
- Recognize and reward success. In Adam’s experience, reinforcing safety practices by publicly calling out excellence helps everyone involved maintain the focus on positive outcomes. Such actions also underscore management’s commitment to putting safety before all else. After drawing attention to an example of safety success, you can engage employees in analyzing the situation through a conversation. Ask questions like, “How did we ensure this task was completed without injury?” and “What practices contributed to its safe completion?”
- Address issues in the moment—and in advance. Traditional responses to safety are just that—responses. A forward-thinking and far more effective approach involves addressing issues proactively, which means anticipating events and implementing changes before they have the chance to derail your day. (This is precisely why Adam recommends including leading as well as lagging indicators in your safety plan.) One example might be intervening when you see a team member using the wrong ladder for a task and talking through the decision process that got them in the sticky situation.
- Bridge the language and communication gap. We have a diverse workforce where a good amount of our employees speak a primary language other than English, which adds an extra layer of complexity to delivering safety information effectively. The burden here is on supervisors and management to ensure materials and instructions are provided in the appropriate language and make it possible for every employee to engage fully in safety-related discussions, inspections, protocol reviews, and follow-up conversations.
- Make safety fun and creative. As Adam explains, when safety training and related conversations are engaging and enjoyable, employees are much more likely to absorb, retain, and act on the information. One effective strategy is to “gamify” safety with activities like Safety Bingo or trivia games. Of course, the winners should be rewarded with something fun. (See number two above.)
Integrating safety into all you do requires planning, intention and follow-through. These five best practices will go a long way toward integrating safety seamlessly into daily work life. Since safety is very much a team effort, it will make all the difference if employees are invited to suggest their own creative ideas for incorporating safety training into meetings, check-ins and daily routines.