If you’re in Health and Safety, you know that keeping staff’s attention during safety training isn’t always easy. How can organizations get staff more engaged on health and safety topics?
In some workplaces, many health risks are often overlooked. They might seem minimal or obvious. But in every type of workplace, across all industries, health and safety must be taken seriously by all staff.
For Health and Safety (H&S) professionals, getting their message across is crucial to guarantee a safe workplace. With each worker committed to a culture of safety, no matter their experience, role, or department, your organization is in the best position to minimize health risks.
Engaging staff when it comes to health and safety matters is the best way to genuinely connect with staff and instill the major tenets of H&S.
Engaged workers are safer workers
According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2024 report, high-engagement business units experience 63% fewer safety incidents compared to their low-engagement counterparts.
What’s that mean? Put simply, engaged workers are safer workers.
For health and safety topics, engaged employees are more attentive, comply better with safety protocols, and actively contribute to a safer work environment.
That’s why getting employees engaged at work, especially when it comes to health and safety, should be a critical aspect of your H&S strategy.
8 proven health and safety engagement ideas
Let’s talk about 8 practical ideas that Health and Safety leaders can use to engage their workplace, whether on the frontline, in the office, or for remote employees.
We’ve categorized these employee engagement activities into four loose pillars:
- Education and training
- Creating a culture of safety
- Compliance engagement
- Technology as an engagement tool
For your business, try implementing any or all of these best practices and observe how your staff reacts. You just might uncover the secret of how to truly connect with the staff and enhance the safety of workers, the environment, and the public at large.
Engagement Through Education, Training, and Continuous Improvement
Embracing continuous learning within your organization is proven to boost engagement. When workers are always thinking about how to optimize processes and make their days more efficient, they’re actively participating in positive and constructive growth.
Activities like workshops, seminars, interactive training sessions, and online learning empower employees with the knowledge and skills they need to excel at their roles. This extends to not only their current positions, but also for the jobs of the future.
For health and safety professionals, with rapidly evolving regulations, rules, and safety policies, workplace training is essential to stay in compliance. That means investing in employee education is a win-win. Your employees will be more engaged and satisfied. Your organization will be best prepared to stay in compliance and operate as safely as possible.
So what are some of the most effective ways to offer engaging employee education and training for health and safety workers?
- Interactive Safety Workshops
Making safety workshops and training more dynamic and interactive encourages employee participation.
Think about trying more hands-on workshops where employees can practice safety procedures in real-life scenarios. These types of simulations can include fire or tornado drills, evacuations, first aid training, and hazard identification exercises. Instead of just assigning a digital training or conducting in-person safety meetings, take the time to make them interactive for maximum impact.
Putting employees through practical, real-world exercises will help them process and internalize safety practices more effectively than traditional training, helping increase engagement and knowledge retention.
- Gamified Learning Modules
What about using gamification techniques to make training sessions more engaging? There are plenty of studies that show that the majority of people react positively to gamified learning.
Implement quizzes, leaderboards, and rewards for employees who excel in safety knowledge. Think about other ways to fire up some light-hearted competitive fun.
Gamified learning can easily be employee-generated, too! Let your colleagues and team members come up with unique games and content to get everyone involved on an even deeper level.
Creating a Culture of Safety
The idea of workplace health and safety comes second nature for Health & Safety professionals. But for the rest of the employees, we can’t assume these concepts are equally understood or inherent.
To establish an engaged workforce, and get all employees active in health and safety measures, organizations should strive to establish a culture of workplace safety. It’s up to H&S managers and team supervisors to lead the charge on developing content, activities, and training to drive home the importance of safety at the workplace.
One way to look at it is to think about safety as a shared responsibility. Include workers in safety audits and safety training. Doing so adds a level of authority and autonomy for each employee, contributing to a higher self-worth within the organization, and getting staff engaged in H&S.
- Employee-Led Safety Audits
Encourage employees to conduct regular safety audits and report potential hazards specific to their roles or tasks.
This not only empowers them, but also increases their awareness of safety issues in general. When employees take an active role in identifying hazards, they become more vigilant and invested in maintaining a safe work environment.
- Recognition Programs for Safety Excellence
Implement a recognition program that rewards employees who consistently adhere to safety protocols or suggest innovative safety improvements. This can also tie into gamification, creating a leaderboard or handing out prizes for employees who are most consistent with their safety audits, for example.
A couple more great ideas are to hand out ‘Safety Champion’ awards or host quarterly recognition events. Recognizing and celebrating safety achievements motivates employees to maintain high safety standards and promotes a positive safety culture. It’s also great for employee confidence building and mental health.
Enhancing Compliance Engagement
Compliance heavy industries often struggle with engaging staff to stay on top of changing rules and regulations.
Engaging employees in a dynamic way throughout compliance processes and training, your organization can ensure that everyone is on the same page when it comes to meeting regulatory standards.
- Interactive Compliance Training:
Develop interactive training modules that employees can access on their devices or their mobile LMS. These modules can include real-world scenarios and case studies to highlight the importance of compliance.
As we mentioned above, interactive training keeps employees more engaged. Using this technique for compliance training helps make sure they understand the real-life implications of non-compliance.
- Real-Time Reporting Tools
Implement mobile employee apps and software solutions that allow employees to report safety issues and compliance breaches in real-time. This encourages immediate action and accountability.
Real-time reporting tools not only speed up the resolution of safety issues but also create a transparent environment where safety concerns are promptly addressed.
Within a digital workplace platform, all incidents are recorded, indexed, and tracked. Together, teams can provide feedback to any issues to help prevent similar problems in the future.
Technology as an Engagement Tool
For frontline workers especially, technology connects them to a central hub. It’s digital – yes – but that doesn’t mean it’s not personal.
These workers often feel disconnected or isolated from the rest of their teams. Health and Safety is too important to leave any employee behind. For this reason, a robust digital workplace and communication software is a must-have.
- Mobile Apps and Frontline Employee Software:
Health and safety processes, workflows, and documents can be streamlined and integrated into a mobile app. Things like safety checklists, incident reporting features, and emergency contact information can all be accessed at your fingertips in seconds with health and safety LMS. Any time, any place.
Employees aren’t left searching for the right avenue to report a problem or reference important documents. One, centralized location for all health and safety information takes out the guess-work. It makes it easier for all workers to follow safety procedures and report issues instantly through an effective communication channel, boosting employee confidence.
- Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) Training:
Are we on the cusp of a big breakthrough in widespread VR in the workplace? Some experts certainly think so.
What better way to engage staff than harnessing some unique and state-of-the-art tech? Using VR, AR, or spatial computing (such as the Apple Vision Pro) can simulate dangerous situations and train employees on how to handle them safely.
This type of immersive experience can significantly enhance learning and retention. All while keeping it interesting, fun, memorable, and engaging.
VR training allows employees to experience and respond to high-risk scenarios in a controlled environment, which can prepare them better for real-world situations.
For health and safety leaders, this “dry run” of potential scenarios adds a level of confidence that their training programs resonate with workers, and that the workers have a better understanding of potential dangers.
Healthier and safer workplaces of the future
Health and safety strategy runs through every fiber of an organization. Keeping people safe and healthy should be the priority for all businesses.
It’s definitely a challenge to get the entire staff on board with all safety related programs, initiatives, and protocols. But if you use the right mix of communication channels, training methods, and technology, your company can engage employees and champion safety.
To learn more about why a digital workplace software can help maximize employee engagement, reach out to one of our experts today.
FAQ
How can recognition programs enhance employee engagement in Health and Safety?
Recognition programs can be useful motivators for employees to actively participate in health and safety initiatives.
Employers can reinforce positive behaviors and attitudes towards safety by rewarding individuals or teams who demonstrate outstanding safety practices. This boosts morale, creates a sense of ownership and responsibility for safety, and provides positive reinforcement and motivation to continuously improve.
How can technology boost employee participation in compliance activities?
Using the right technology is one of the best ways to engage employees in compliance activities. From interactive training modules to real-time reporting tools, mobile apps and digital workplace software provide staff with convenient access to compliance resources.
These tools make it quick and easy for workers to report hazards or incidents instantly. Removing friction from traditionally paper-heavy, but necessary, reporting processes will encourage employees throughout compliance activities.
