Transforming Typical Safety Briefings: From "Best HSE Idea" to "Video Briefing"

Traditional paper-based safety briefings are gradually losing their effectiveness, often turning into a formal tick-box exercise for employees. One of the main challenges across many industrial sites remains a certain narrow-mindedness among personnel and the mindset: "I'm just a small cog, my job is to perform tasks, and safety should be handled by managers." The issue of perceiving standard text instructions is particularly acute when onboarding a new generation of employees who are accustomed to quick consumption of visual content.

During his presentation, Ilya Kasyanov details the experience of transforming conventional workforce interaction formats and overcoming engagement barriers. The initiative, which started as a classic competition for the best idea to improve working conditions, evolved—thanks to management support—into a large-scale project where employees create their own video briefings.

From Identifying Problems to Visualizing Safe Work

The first step toward cultural change was an idea competition where visualization of the problem served as the main evaluation criterion (and source of maximum points). Workers were encouraged not merely to point out a hazardous area, but to clearly illustrate how the process could be improved. For example, these initiatives led to the in-house development of protective shields against flying debris during lawn mowing on facility grounds, as well as the design of safe gravity self-locking grabs for material handling, which were subsequently officially certified and integrated into production.

However, over time, it became clear that this engagement tool could be scaled up. This gave birth to the video briefing concept. Instead of reading dry job instruction texts, employees were invited to film short (up to 10 minutes) videos demonstrating the correct and safe execution of daily tasks.

Practical Implementation and Reducing Bureaucratic Barriers

A key success factor of the project—alongside a substantial prize fund and separate categories for managers and shop-floor workers—was making the submission process as simple as possible. Bureaucratic hurdles were minimized: videos were submitted directly via instant messaging contacts and social media networks. This enabled creative teams to form right at the workplace, where roles split naturally—some performed the task on camera, while others handled filming.

Switching to a video format resolves several critical operational challenges at once:

• Improved perception of the workplace: Visual demonstration of work on familiar equipment and in everyday shop-floor conditions significantly eases onboarding for new employees, alleviating initial stress.
• Higher quality safety briefings: During pre-shift meetings, dialogue between supervisors and workers can now focus on analyzing a specific video case study rather than blindly signing a logbook.
• Shift in employee role: Workers transform from objects of oversight into safety leaders who lead by personal example.

Building a Corporate Library of Video Practices

The initiative yielded over 70 high-quality videos detailing the correct execution of various operational tasks, generating more than 3,000 views across internal company channels. Long-term project plans include building a comprehensive corporate library of best practices. Access to video briefings is planned via QR codes placed directly on risk assessment cards and printed HSE instructions, seamlessly combining regulatory requirements with visual workflow demonstrations.

What You Will Learn from This Presentation:

• How to overcome employees' tick-box attitude toward following safety instructions?
• What evaluation criteria to use when selecting corporate HSE videos?
• How to minimize bureaucracy when launching engagement initiatives for industrial staff?
• How to integrate user-generated videos into regular pre-shift briefings?
• How video formats help reduce injury risks and accelerate onboarding for new hires?