Take 5 Safety Drills
Take 5 Safety Drills are five minute safety drills developed for quick practice of safety protocols. The drills consist of general topics like health, wellness, safety communications, disasters, safety equipment, and responses. Additional drills for specific categories include: air borne issues, burns, cuts, civil rights, critical stress, driving, fatigue, hazardous materials, hazmat, heart attack, laws and standards, risk management, smoke inhalation, sprains and strains, and wildlife interference. Depending upon your work situation, you may need to practice more or fewer drills than the Take 5 Safety Drill system suggests. You may also wish to pursue Take 5 in a different way. Let’s look into the most common safety drills and other options for Take 5 ideas.
Common Drills
The most common Take 5 drills are the standard fire drill, communication drill, and first aid drills. Each of these require more in-depth explanations.
- Fire drills and other emergency drills may not seem necessary precautions for adults in a professional workplace. However, in the face of an emergency situation, many employees do not respond quickly to fire alarms and other emergency alarms. Even managers may not know the best action in an emergency. Therefore, training employees on protocols is the best way to ensure your employees remain safe in dangerous situations. Drills can be as quick as five minutes, so take five occasionally to make sure everyone knows how to react to emergencies.
- Emergency communication is another drill you may wish to pursue. In emergency communication drills, the emergency response phone tree is tested. The leader calls each employee listed in his section of the tree to begin the drill, then the tree is followed until all leaders on the tree are notified. Within the specified time period, the top leader will call a few low-level employees to ensure the message was received by every employee. Again, the drill should be complete within five minutes, so take five to ensure all of your employees can communicate quickly and efficiently in an emergency.
- First aid drills can prove your first response team will be able to aid as needed in emergency situations. Quiz your response team on first aid questions periodically to make sure the necessary knowledge is retained for emergency situations. Five minutes could be all it takes to assure a customer or employee in need will receive the fastest and best first aid available.
Different Takes on Take 5
Some companies have identified different uses for the Take 5 idea. For example, you could take five minutes every day to address safety concerns or remind employees to remain safety-minded during the day. Other companies use Take 5 to set aside five minutes of every meeting to address safety. Additionally, daily five minute surprise quizzes help others address and review safety.
Whatever your take on Take 5, taking five minutes to review safety can help your employees maintain a safety state of mind. Simple and effective, Take 5 can increase or maintain low injury numbers.
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