Simple Tips on How to Improve Your Safety Inductions

Effective Inductions

Traditional Induction

• Be well prepared and well designed

• Grab whoever can do it 15 minutes before presentation

• Consultation on design with graphic designers, instructional designers and educators

• Get the safety crusader to design it under the principle of ‘cover your arse and teach everything’

• Consult and read a book on learning and presentation skills, there are plenty on the market

• Believe that a qualification in safety, engineering or project management ensures expertise in teaching and learning

• Inform participants the purpose of the induction is learning and application

• Tell participants this is arse covering, when you know the induction is not a defence in court

• Don’t start with anything to do with regulations, the Act or standards

• Start with regulations, the Act or standard

• Don’t use presenters who are safety crusaders

• Use presenters who are safety crusaders. Crusade on your own skills and abilities

• Use presenters who are people focused not product or content focused. Focus on key principles.

• Focus on content not relationships

• Do a walk around and consult about induction room design. Make sure you consult about semiotics with an expert and ensure signs and words are meaningful

• Shove everyone in a poorly designed classroom, put up the usual meaningless mottos and slogans, cheap posters and ‘zero harm’ nonsense

• Use case studies from life that connect with participants

• Use case studies of accidents and gory pictures

• Focus on perceptions, motivation, decision making, trade offs in risk and the principle of ownership

• Focus on rules, control, fear, policing, fines, punishment and law

• Ask open questions and seek engagement

• Ask rhetorical question the presenter answers themselves

• Use white boards, mind mapping and groups

• Use rote learning techniques and ‘parrot’ training strategies

• Get participation early, focus on activity

• Stand and lecture and talk to slides

• Make the induction manual interesting (use an graphic designer) and activity focused

• Bombard the participant with a rule book-like document full of text and rules. Lazily duplicate the presentation slides as a manual

• Invite stories and use multimedia

• Tell war or personal stories

• Make sections of the induction short (40 minutes) with breaks for coffee, tea and biscuits

• Sit people in a classroom for hours

• Use graphics rather than text as much as possible. Prepare by taking pictures and video of what you want them to know.

• Bombard participants with text and Powerpoint slides

• Use hands on or experiential learning strategies as much as possible

• Rely on Powerpoint slides to deliver the induction

• If using Powerpoint and text, have less than 10 words per slide and accompany all text with pictures not clip art

• Have more than more than 50 words per slide. If you can, use cheap clip art.

• Use concepts that have lasting effect through engagement and thinking

• Use emotional videos like Remember Charlie, that have a shelf life of 3 months and no lasting effect

• Establish understanding verbally and by observation,

• Sign off the induction with a comprehension test (that are mostly fake anyway)

• Finish early

• Finish late and run over time

• Deal with mistakes on site as learning and conversation opportunities

• Punish people on site with re-induction for misdemeanours