Keeping it safe and engaging: 3 ways to energize your safety meetings

Regular safety meetings educate employees and help prevent injuries, accidents, and bring your team together to cultivate a culture of safety.

Although the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) doesn’t measure the impact of safety meetings themselves, the decrease in workplace accidents over time suggests that safety efforts, including meetings, are making a positive difference!

And while there’s no blanket requirement for meeting frequency, safety meetings are still crucial for informing employees and promoting safety. Check with your state’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) program or relevant industry standards to see if there are any specific meeting frequency requirements that apply to your workplace.

Beyond the rules, keeping employees engaged is key to lasting knowledge and adoption of new procedures. Luckily, there are ways to revamp your safety meetings and make them more interactive and digestible for your team!

In this article, we’ll share three ways to revitalize your safety meetings so you can increase employee participation and foster a long-term positive safety culture geared toward continuous improvement

1.Change up your environment

When meetings take place in the same familiar location, employees are more likely to put their minds on autopilot, leading to passive listening and decreased focus. A new location can spark curiosity and jolt attendees out of autopilot mode, making them more receptive to the information. Change things up by moving the meeting to another location, maybe even out of the office and into the field.

Context matters, too. Holding a safety meeting in the actual work environment (like a construction site) can also make the information more relatable and relevant. Seeing safety procedures demonstrated in the context of their daily work can improve understanding and reinforce the importance of safe practices and how to address safety issues.

Overall, changing the environment for safety meetings isn’t just about novelty. It’s a strategic approach to improve focus, information retention, and engagement with crucial safety information.

2. Gamification: a friendly twist on safety

Contests are great motivators for people to step up their game. Introduce a safety contest at your next meeting that will get people excited about the reward and create friendly competition!

Looking for inspiration? Here are a few ideas to consider

• Safety trivia challenges: Prepare a set of trivia questions related to relevant safety procedures, regulations, and hazard identification.
• Hazard identification contests or bingo: Think iSpy at your facility or worksite, but with potential hazards! This can also be done with a bingo-twist. Create bingo cards with workplace hazards listed as squares, As workers find the hazards, they can mark them off their bingo cards.
• Interactive case studies: Present a real-world safety incident or a hypothetical scenario. Divide participants into groups and have them brainstorm solutions or preventative measures. Award points based on the effectiveness and completeness of their proposed solutions. Allow time to discuss solutions as a group, allowing each team to present their ideas.
• Safety slogan showdown: Divide participants into teams, present a specific safety theme or hazard for the meeting and give teams a set amount of time to brainstorm and craft a catchy safety slogan.

Remember, the key is to tailor the gamification elements to your specific audience and meeting goals. It should be fun and engaging but also reinforce important safety knowledge. These examples add variety and cater to different learning styles. The focus is on collaboration, friendly competition, and reinforcing safety knowledge that sticks.

3. Include diverse voices and perspectives

Another way to shake up the norm for your safety meetings is to consider not using the same speaker for every meeting. Bringing in other reliable sources to speak to your team every now and then is a great way to involve other stakeholders in your safety initiatives and to hear different perspectives.

If you’re a safety manager, consider asking your LinkedIn network if anyone would like to share their experiences with your team, virtually or on-site. You can also consider bringing in OSHA representatives, safety professionals from other companies, or other industry experts to infuse your team with different ideas and perspectives.

Inviting external speakers can help build relationships with other professionals in the safety industry and expand your network. This can lead to potential collaborations, knowledge sharing, and opportunities for learning from others in the field. It’s a win-win situation for everyone involved.

Lastly, meetings don’t have to be limited to leadership team speakers. Encourage employees to take turns presenting on safety practices relevant to their roles and line of work. This adds fresh perspectives, empowers employees, and fosters a sense of ownership in creating a safe work environment.

Bottom line

Regular meetings give you the chance to be creative and engage your team members. Whether you’re holding daily meetings or quarterly meetings, incorporating these strategies can help ensure that your safety meetings are not only informative, but also engaging and effective in promoting a strong safety culture within your organization.

Use our safety meetings calendar to easily plan your meetings for the year with corresponding events and observances,  give some of these strategies a try at your next safety meeting and watch employee morale skyrocket!