What are the most effective ways to communicate safety procedures to employees with irregular schedules?
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Safety procedures are essential for preventing accidents, injuries, and illnesses in the workplace. However, communicating them effectively to employees with irregular schedules can be challenging. Employees who work in shifts, on-call, remotely, or part-time may not have access to regular safety training, meetings, or updates. How can you ensure that they are aware of the safety rules, policies, and expectations in your organization? Here are some tips to help you communicate safety procedures to employees with irregular schedules.
One of the best ways to communicate safety procedures to employees with irregular schedules is to use multiple channels and formats. For example, you can use email, text, phone, video, posters, flyers, newsletters, intranet, or social media to share safety information. You can also use different formats, such as written, verbal, visual, or interactive, to suit different learning styles and preferences. The more channels and formats you use, the more likely you are to reach your employees and reinforce your safety messages.
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Smit Sharma
GKN Fokker Elmo | Fleetguard-Filtrum | GKN Driveline | NITT
The Shift Safety Pass-Off system is a structured approach to ensure that employees with irregular schedules are well-informed about safety procedures. By creating a checklist, assigning a responsible supervisor, conducting shift handover meetings, emphasizing real-time communication, maintaining documentation, and providing regular training and update on what’s happening across the shifts can be of real useful
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Nino Curcione
Vice President of Health and Safety at Environmental 360 Solutions Ltd.
The employees need to be teammates. Passing forward the best practise and making sure the information is understood is ultimate way. Don't rely on safety boards, tv monitors, cell phones or even safety personnel. But a supervisor, making the extra effort to reach out personally to every member of the offshifts and showing each person the best practice will be the game changer. Forget Observations, make Interactions the key!
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ENGR. ZAFAR ULLAH
QHSE Manager - Gas Solutions
The following recommendations could be helpful for the effective way of communicating safety requirement to the employees having irregular schedule. - The identification (list) of employees who are occasionaly visiting the project site. - Participation of irregular employees in online awareness sessions to be ensured. - The high critical safety procedures shall be discussed during orientation program . - Develop training matrix for short term employees & employees with irregular schedule. - Visual standards shall be increased onsite for quick reference. - Safety Procedures hard copies shall be kept onsite at conspicous place which shall be accessible to everyone.
Creating a safety culture is another way to communicate safety procedures to employees with irregular schedules. This involves setting clear and consistent safety goals and expectations, providing regular feedback and recognition for safety performance, encouraging employee involvement in safety activities, providing adequate resources and support for safety initiatives, and modeling and rewarding safe behaviors and practices. Through creating a safety culture, you can foster a sense of ownership and commitment to safety among your employees, regardless of their schedules.
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VEDAT Z.
Founder - IIHSE International Institute of Health Safety and Environment
Email, online trainings, learning management system,message boards is a good example to connect the people. You can also use safety app for the workers to send a message.
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Dr Amy Silver MAPS ClinPsyD MA MPhil BSc(Hons)
⚡𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐏 𝐅𝐄𝐀𝐑 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆 ⚡Author of 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝘂𝗱𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗴𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁 ⚡ HBR Contributor ⚡ Speaker -Executive Coach- Facilitator
The crucial difference between safety messages having impact or not, is psychological safety. The evidence is clear from the programs I run...if we increase team psychological safety we get prioritisation of safety, engagement, proactive behaviours and continuous improvement because of two way communication. When psychological safety is low we get shortcuts, minimisation of safety reporting, silencing of risks, blame, all because of fear of sharing information and lack of trust. Fix psychologicL safety if you want physical safety messages to stick. Write to me for the white paper.
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Vinay Nair
Mental Health & Wellbeing - Consultant | Counsellor | Workshop Facilitator | Mental Health First Aid Instructor | Dad X 2 | Passionate about wellbeing for migrants
One thing I found helpful is when managers become leaders and show commitment to adopting and following the safety culture. That then helps team members follow through with change.
A third way to communicate safety procedures to employees with irregular schedules is to customize your communication to their specific needs and situations. Segmenting employees into groups based on their roles, tasks, risks, or locations can help tailor safety messages to address the relevant hazards and controls for each group. Furthermore, using examples, stories, or testimonials to illustrate the benefits and consequences of following or ignoring safety procedures can help increase the relevance and effectiveness of your safety messages. Additionally, using simple, clear, and concise language while avoiding jargon or technical terms can ensure that your employees understand and apply them. Providing opportunities for feedback, questions, or clarification can also be beneficial.
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Aliaksandr Parmon
Entrepreneur | Workplace Safety & Well-being Adviser | Focused on Social impact & ESG
Customize your communication to employees with irregular schedules by segmenting them into groups based on roles, tasks, risks, or locations. Tailor safety messages to address relevant hazards and controls for each group. Use examples and stories to illustrate the consequences of safety procedures. Communicate in simple, clear language, avoiding jargon. Provide opportunities for feedback and clarification.
To ensure that employees with irregular schedules are aware and informed of safety procedures, you should monitor and evaluate your communication. This can include tracking and measuring the reach, frequency, and impact of your communication channels and formats. Additionally, you should solicit and analyze feedback from your employees regarding their satisfaction, comprehension, and application of safety procedures. Audits, inspections, or tests can also be conducted to assess the compliance and performance of your employees on safety procedures. Lastly, any gaps, barriers, or challenges that hinder your communication or affect your safety outcomes should be identified and addressed. By monitoring and evaluating your communication in this way, you can improve your communication strategies.
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Duke Jackson
HSE | QAQC | ESG | ISO | ISM | DPA
Consult workers in drafting safety procedures and institute an ownership culture. The workers would determine the best method to communicate the procedures for effective implementation
Communicating safety procedures to employees with irregular schedules can be difficult, but there are several ways to make it easier. Keeping up with changes in safety regulations, standards, and best practices is important, as is promptly communicating any updates to employees. Additionally, reviewing safety procedures regularly and making adjustments or revisions when necessary is beneficial. Furthermore, reminding and refreshing employees on safety procedures periodically and reinforcing their importance can help ensure that employees are up to date and compliant with safety procedures. By using these strategies, you can maintain the accuracy and currency of your safety messages and ensure that your employees are safe and healthy at work.
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Tomislav Orlic
Tech IOSH / ISO 45001 Lead Auditor / IIRSM Associate
F O C U S Follow safety procedures and work instructions Observe your souroundings,tools,people, change... Control risks dynamicaly and take time out for safety Understand job in hands and associated hazards and implement adequate mitigations Stop if you feel its not right becuase probably it is not!
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Zara-Maria Stabilio, GSP
Safety & Risk Manager
While all the contributions for this post are excellent points, we are missing the management team and their involvement with those team members who have irregular schedules. A sports team cannot function without a coach. The same thought applies to our employees. If there are team members with irregular schedules then typically there are managers with irregular schedules as well. They should set the example and not be the example. Providing the management team with the right information with the right training so the safety message is passed on to those team members under them is also essential. Management is an essential resource for their team.
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Vinay Nair
Mental Health & Wellbeing - Consultant | Counsellor | Workshop Facilitator | Mental Health First Aid Instructor | Dad X 2 | Passionate about wellbeing for migrants
Safety sounds like common sense but only when safety procedures address current habits and behaviours is when safety rates improve. Workplace safety is both psychosocial and physical.