Safety Contact!
How can you engage meeting participants in safety issues from the very first minutes of any meeting, including shift handovers or 5-minute meetings at the start of the workday?
The answer lies in the "Safety Contact" practice.
What is the format of a Safety Contact?
The meeting organizer or moderator invites participants to share a relevant safety contact at the very beginning of the meeting. A Safety Contact is a brief account of an event that led to negative consequences, along with recommendations on what should be done to prevent such an occurrence. If participants do not have a safety contact to share, the meeting organizer can conduct it themselves.
Importantly, a Safety Contact must be:
- Brief (no more than 5 minutes);
- Relevant to all or most meeting participants;
- Concluded with a discussion among participants about what additional measures can be taken to reduce the risk of a negative event or its consequences.
Regularly conducting Safety Contacts on various industrial safety topics ensures that every meeting prompts reflection on safety issues and what else can be improved in the workplace.
