• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

SafetyRisk.net

Humanising Safety and Embracing Real Risk

  • Home
    • About
      • Privacy Policy
      • Contact
  • FREE
    • Slogans
      • Researchers Reveal the Top 10 Most Effective Safety Slogans Of All Time
      • When Slogans Don’t Work
      • CLASSIC, FAMOUS and INFAMOUS SAFETY QUOTES
      • 500 OF THE BEST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2023
      • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
      • COVID-19 (Coronavirus, Omicron) Health and Safety Slogans and Quotes for the Workplace
      • Safety Acronyms
      • You know Where You Can Stick Your Safety Slogans
      • Sayings, Slogans, Aphorisms and the Discourse of Simple
      • Spanish Safety Slogans – Consignas de seguridad
      • Safety Slogans List
      • Road Safety Slogans 2023
      • How to write your own safety slogans
      • Why Are Safety Slogans Important
      • Safety Slogans Don’t Save Lives
      • 40 Free Safety Slogans For the Workplace
      • Safety Slogans for Work
    • FREE SAFETY eBOOKS
    • Free Hotel and Resort Risk Management Checklist
    • FREE DOWNLOADS
    • TOP 50
    • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS
    • Find a Safety Consultant
    • Free Safety Program Documents
    • Psychology Of Safety
    • Safety Ideas That Work
    • HEALTH and SAFETY MANUALS
    • FREE SAFE WORK METHOD STATEMENT RESOURCES
    • Whats New In Safety
    • FUN SAFETY STUFF
    • Health and Safety Training
    • SAFETY COURSES
    • Safety Training Needs Analysis and Matrix
    • Top 20 Safety Books
    • This Toaster Is Hot
    • Free Covid-19 Toolbox Talks
    • Download Page – Please Be Patient With Larger Files…….
    • SAFETY IMAGES, Photos, Unsafe Pictures and Funny Fails
    • How to Calculate TRIFR, LTIFR and Other Health and Safety Indicators
    • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
  • Social Psychology Of Risk
    • What is Psychological Health and Safety at Work?
    • Safety Psychology Terminology
    • Some Basics on Social Psychology & Risk
    • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk – Prof Karl E. Weick
    • The Psychology of Leadership in Risk
    • Conducting a Psychology and Culture Safety Walk
    • The Psychology of Conversion – 20 Tips to get Started
    • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk And Safety
    • Psychology and safety
    • The Psychology of Safety
    • Hot Toaster
    • TALKING RISK VIDEOS
    • WHAT IS SAFETY
    • THE HOT TOASTER
    • THE ZERO HARM DEBATE
    • SEMIOTICS
    • LEADERSHIP
  • Dr Long Posts
    • ALL POSTS
    • Learning Styles Matter
    • There is no Hierarchy of Controls
    • Scaffolding, Readiness and ZPD in Learning
    • What Can Safety Learn From Playschool?
    • Presentation Tips for Safety People
    • Dialogue Do’s and Don’ts
    • It’s Only a Symbol
    • Ten Cautions About Safety Checklists
    • Zero is Unethical
    • First Report on Zero Survey
    • There is No Objectivity, Deal With it!
  • THEMES
    • Risk Myths
    • Safety Myths
    • Safety Culture Silences
    • Safety Culture
    • Psychological Health and Safety
    • Zero Harm
    • Due Diligence
  • Free Learning
    • Introduction to SPoR – Free
    • FREE RISK and SAFETY EBOOKS
    • FREE ebook – Guidance for the beginning OHS professional
    • Free EBook – Effective Safety Management Systems
    • Free EBook – Lessons I Have Learnt
  • Psychological Safety
    • What is Psychological Health and Safety at Work?
    • Managing psychosocial hazards at work
    • Psychological Safety – has it become the next Maslow’s hammer?
    • What is Psychosocial Safety
    • Psychological Safety Slogans and Quotes
    • What is Psychological Safety?
    • Understanding Psychological Terminology
    • Psycho-Social and Socio-Psychological, What’s the Difference?
    • Build a Psychologically Safe Workplace by Taking Risks and Analysing Failures
    • It’s not weird – it’s a psychological safety initiative!
You are here: Home / Workplace Safety / Safety Communications are Not Always Safe

Safety Communications are Not Always Safe

October 1, 2013 by Admin 6 Comments

Safety Communications – Not Always Safe

safety communicationsLean management and technological innovations have changed the way the workforce communicates. Employers that keep their employee safety risks at acceptable levels also need to evaluate communications, training and administrative techniques to ensure they are sending the right safety message.

While there are many new communication vehicles, it’s most important to ensure the message actually reaches the audience and creates or maintains appropriate safe behaviour.

The way that safety was communicated in the past may not be appropriate today. For example:

  • Today’s learning styles have changed. Employees today want short, simple, personal messages.
  • They seek quick and easy instructions.
  • Language skill subsets can vary; employees may have different levels of comprehension for speaking, listening and reading
  • Safety programs can be confusing. Often the people teaching safety programs are technical instructors who know their material but may not have a good understanding of operations or organizational culture.
  • Safety communications are competing with many other messages from production, quality, environmental and other human resources functions. Most companies are doing more with less, meaning that the more messages sent, the more the messages become diluted in a pool of management communication.
  • New tools have emerged that are effective at getting employees’ attention and motivating them to action. Podcasts and instant messaging are two examples, though they are rarely used in safety communications.
  • Safety communication objectives have changed. In the past, safety instructors and other communications would present information that were required to share with employees. Today, safety communications strive to motivate employees to prevent dangerous situations before they occur.

Changing the Communication Process

Years of ingrained behaviours aren’t easily changed, but new behaviours won’t last long if they aren’t supported by an audience-centered, interactive, continuous communication/education process (the same principles used with mass media and social marketing). Without understanding how a message reaches employees and what to do with that information, employers can’t be sure employees fully understand what is expected of them. To determine if employees are making sense of safety issues, employers should examine what is and isn’t working in their safety program. The first step is to audit existing communication materials, interview key stakeholders and collect employee input. Next they should decide the best methods to reach, educate and motivate a workforce to follow rules, wear appropriate protection and perform safely. New tools need to be introduced when they add value to the process, such as podcasts, instant messaging, wikis, streaming content and blogs. In addition, employers should take a close look at the vast amount of research available.

Social psychologists and others have studied the efficacy of safety communication strategies in a variety of settings — from hospital environments to nuclear reactors. A common theme in their findings is management’s impact on employee behaviour; if managers model the desired attitude and behaviours, employees follow suit. Furthermore, this behaviour is effective in a variety of work environments, suggesting that modelling is a powerful tool that can be leveraged with little expense or effort. Lack of leadership engagement in safety initiatives can severely mitigate the usefulness of even the most high-tech strategy. Communication innovations may be great for other HR messages, but when addressing safety issues, all techniques need to be evaluated properly and the role of leadership must be factored into the equation.

Please share our posts

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Workplace Safety Tagged With: Safety Communication, safety communication, Safety Culture, Safety Policy, safety programs

Reader Interactions

Do you have any thoughts? Please share them below Cancel reply

Primary Sidebar

Search and Discover More on this Site

Never miss a post - Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address and join other discerning risk and safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Join 7,497 other subscribers

Introduction to SPOR – FREE!!

SAFETY MYTHS SERIES

The Mythic Symbology of Safety

Posture Myths and Holistic Ergonomics

Safety Mythbusters

Don’t Be Emotional! Another Safety Myth

Tackling the Challenge of Heuristics in Safety

The Myth of Normal

NEW! Free Download

Please take our 2 minute zero survey

Recent Comments

  • Rob Long on Posture Myths and Holistic Ergonomics
  • Linda McKendry on Posture Myths and Holistic Ergonomics
  • Rob long on Welcome to the Nightmare, Safety Creates its Own Minefield (as usual)
  • Matt Thorne on Welcome to the Nightmare, Safety Creates its Own Minefield (as usual)
  • Anonymous on Welcome to the Nightmare, Safety Creates its Own Minefield (as usual)
  • Jason on How Bias Inhibits Learning in Safety
  • Rob Long on How Bias Inhibits Learning in Safety
  • Admin on How Bias Inhibits Learning in Safety
  • Rob Long on 400,000 Free Downloads
  • Gustavo Saralegui on 400,000 Free Downloads
  • Rob long on To Err is Human, You Better Believe It
  • Wynand on To Err is Human, You Better Believe It
  • Rob Long on To Err is Human, You Better Believe It
  • simon cassin on To Err is Human, You Better Believe It
  • Rob Long on Records of safety activities: evidence of safety or non-compliance?
  • Matt Thorne on Free Online Workshops
  • Rob long on No Good Reason to Follow Reason
  • Brian Edwin Darlington on No Good Reason to Follow Reason
  • Risk Diversity on Book Launch – For the Love of Zero – in Portuguese
  • Rob Long on No Good Reason to Follow Reason

FREE eBOOK DOWNLOADS

Footer

VIRAL POST – The Risk Matrix Myth

Top Posts & Pages. Sad that most are so dumb but this is what safety luves

  • 500 OF THE BEST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2023
  • Free Safety Moments and Toolbox Talk Examples, Tips and Resources
  • Road Safety Slogans 2023
  • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
  • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
  • Safety Acronyms
  • SAFETY IMAGES, Photos, Unsafe Pictures and Funny Fails
  • How to Calculate TRIFR, LTIFR and Other Health and Safety Indicators
  • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS, CHECKISTS, REGISTERS, TEMPLATES and APPS
  • 15 Safety Precautions When Working With Electricity

Recent Posts

  • Welcome to the Nightmare, Safety Creates its Own Minefield (as usual)
  • Thinking of Mortality
  • Safety is the Wrong Anchor
  • Foresight Blindness, Hindsight Bias and Risk
  • Getting the Balance Right in Tackling Risk
  • What is SPoR?
  • How Bias Inhibits Learning in Safety
  • Afraid to Let Go of What Doesn’t Work in Safety
  • When You Don’t Know What to do in Safety, Have Another Blitz!!!
  • Gloves and Glasses Compliance
  • A Case of Desensitisation – What Would You Do?
  • How to Leave the Safety Industry
  • The Mythic Symbology of Safety
  • Dark Waters, The True Story of DuPont and Zero
  • 400,000 Free Downloads
  • Am I stupid? I didn’t think of that…
  • Don’t Look Now Safety, Your Metaphor is Showing
  • Ratio Delusions and Heinrich’s Hoax
  • To Err is Human, You Better Believe It
  • Culture as a Wicked Problem, for Safety
  • Safety Leadership Training
  • Cultural Orientation in Risk
  • The Stanford Experiment and The Social Psychology of Risk
  • Objectivity, Audits and Attribution When Calculating Risk
  • Records of safety activities: evidence of safety or non-compliance?
  • Zero, The Seeking of Infinity
  • Safety Leadership Essentials
  • What Can Indiana Jones Tell Us About Culture
  • Safety as a Worldview
  • The Loathing of Limits
  • Culture Cannot be Framed Through Safety
  • Free Online Workshops
  • Safety Culture–Hudson’s Model
  • Book Launch – For the Love of Zero – in Portuguese
  • Advancing Backwards in Safety
  • The ‘Noise’ of Safety, Silence and Practicing of Mindfulness
  • All Things Must Pass in Risk
  • I’m just not that into safety anymore
  • Sticks and Stones and the Nonsense of Zero Harm
  • Courting Infallibility in Safety
  • Indicators of Risk
  • What Can Safety Learn From Playschool?
  • No Good Reason to Follow Reason
  • Just as Well Culture Doesn’t Listen to Safety
  • What Are the Benefits Of Social Psychology of Risk?
  • Short-Sighted Lenses by Safety
  • Is Safety the Empire of Non-Sense?
  • No Wonder Safety is Confused About Culture
  • Building High Performance Safety Cultures
  • Understanding iCue, a Visual, Verbal, Semiotic Method for Tackling Risk

VIRAL POST!!! HOW TO QUIT THE SAFETY INDUSTRY

FEATURED POSTS

Binary Opposites and Safety Goal Strategy

By What Method?

Focus on ‘Meeting’ people, not legislation – a path to risk maturity

WHS Legislation is NOT about Safety it’s about Culture

Defining Safety

The Binary Barnacle

Safety Gives Me the Right over Other Rights

People Skills Are Not Soft Skills

Mental Health, Risk and Safety

It Works! A New Approach to Risk and Safety

Fooled by Certainty

Towards Dumb

Learning Wisdom from the Collective Unconscious

Who Said We Don’t Need Systems?

Affirming Chance

The Challenging Psychology of Ergonomics

Safety is NOT a Choice

Rituals in Risk Management – Podcast

I Just Don’t Know

Suicide Prevention – a Social Psychological Perspective

The Ethics of Safety

The Tyranny of Absolutes

Social Psychology of Risk Workshop-Sydney

TRIFR Safety Zombies

Human Factors is Never About Humans

The Social Psychology of Risk Handbook, i-thou

Something’s gotta give..

Hoodwinked by Heinrich

THE INFLUENCE OF VISUAL STIMULI ON THE UNCONSCIOUS

Making the World fit the Safety Worldview

C. G. Jung on Risk and Safety

The Fear of Power and the Power of Fear

A Parallel Universe in Safety

The Quantitative and Qualitative Divide in Safety

Do Not Go Gently, SPoR and the Civility Myth

What in the (Risk & Safety) World is Imagination?

New Video Available – Semiotics Walk Workshop

People are not Rats–Moving Beyond Behaviour Based Safety

Social Psychology of Risk Challenge

What Does Your Risk and Safety Icon Say?

More Posts from this Category

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address and join other discerning risk and safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Join 7,497 other subscribers

How we pay for the high cost of running of this site – try it for free on your site

WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY?

What is Psychological Safety at Work?