Meetings are often associated with the worst part of our working day.
Sitting quietly in a room and having the dreaded “let’s go round the table and see what everyone thinks” isn’t everyone’s idea of a productive way to spend an hour.
Meetings don’t need to be like this. In fact, safety meetings shouldn’t be like this. There are a few tips that will keep safety meetings engaging, informative and most important of all, useful to your employees.
So how do you run a successful safety meeting for your staff?
1 Keep It Informative But Concise
The main problem staff have with meetings is the length.
What could have been said in 20 minutes often runs on to 45 minutes and then over an hour. By the half hour mark most people have lost interest. Safety meetings should be straight to the point. Use the KISS technique (“Keep it simple, stupid”) and don’t overcomplicate things.
Set out a purpose for the meeting, cover the details in a concise way and everyone will be informed and back doing their work in no time.
2 Seating Is Important
Participation and engagement are two of the cornerstones of any successful meeting especially when it comes to something as important as safety.
That being said, the seating arrangements are often ignored. Making sure that everyone is in the room often isn’t enough. A round table is a great way to encourage debate although if this isn’t possible, chairs in a U shape work well too.
The point is to ensure that everyone can be involved if they want to be but it also means no-one can hide and have a quick nap at the back of the room.
3 Reinforcing Safety Procedures
One of the main reasons for calling a safety meeting is to update staff on new safety regulations however don’t forget to reinforce existing safety procedures too.
Sometimes a quick refresher meeting is a great way to make certain everyone is reading off the same sheet when it comes to safety protocol.
The key is to keep it engaging and not to simply go over all the safety procedures you probably talked about at the last meeting which brings us onto…
4 Ditch The Old Techniques
Listening to someone speak for the best part of an hour or reading off a PowerPoint presentation isn’t going to keep many people interested. Why not spice it up a bit?
Safety doesn’t have to be boring. Create some activities staff can do in the meeting to demonstrate safety issues or solutions. Videos can increase retention levels by up to 50% and even safety focused games should keep everyone engaged.
Presentations do have their place however they shouldn’t be the only thing you rely on.
5 Conducting A Successful Safety Meeting
Safety meetings don’t have to be cumbersome and boring affairs.
The point is to ensure that everyone is working in line with regulations and keeping themselves and others out of harm’s way.
Don’t be afraid to take a different approach to how you conduct your safety meetings. You don’t need to implement all our tips here but even changing the format slightly can produce fantastic results for you and your staff.
