How to Make Safety Training Fun … It’s Possible!

 

As an employer, creating and fostering a safe work environment is your most important task. It’s your job to minimize injury and reduce your company’s legal risk.

Safety training is one of the more common and effective approaches for companies; it allows you to establish expectations for workplace behavior. Through training, you can arm your staff with the knowledge necessary to reduce the chances of illness or injury. Unfortunately, safety training can also be tedious and boring … which could mean workers don’t pay attention.

Your safety training programs don’t have to be dull and dry. Make them fun and engaging so employees more likely to pay attention and remember what they learned.  Consider these tips:

 

• Develop games.

Create a “TV-game show version” of your training. Set up a Jeopardy game board with safety questions, play a version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, or give staff members puzzles to solve. Offer incentives or rewards for those who excel at the competition, like giving out candy bars for correct answers or publishing the names of winners in company-wide newsletters.

 

• Incorporate humor.

Use funny examples or create ridiculous anecdotes to showcase a particular safety issue. Adopt comedic videos from the internet or make your own GIFs that show off safety violations. Create in-house safety “memes” that are humorous but make important points. People won’t recall a boring list of safety rules but they will remember a joke they thought was funny and taught them something.

 

• Encourage active participation among staff members.

Don’t put your staff in a room and lecture them. Make them get actively involved in safety training. You could have employees stage mock safety violations and create their own safety video, or you could ask them to look at pictures and videos and compete to see who can list the most safety violations. Whatever approach you take, make the training interactive.

Fun and games are important learning tools to inspire employees so they remember and follow best practices for safety. To create the safest possible workplace, however, you must hire only qualified candidates who are committed to taking necessary steps to avoid accidents.

Contact The Reserves Network today to learn how we can help your company find employees who understand the value of safety and who will work hard to protect themselves, their co-workers and the company.