We recently developed a series of Safety Shares for a client.
A Safety Share is when a worker shares lessons learned from personal experience in relation to a health and safety incident. The idea being that if the information is shared, others may be saved from making the same mistakes. This is known as peer learning where we learn with, and from, each other. Sharing information and lessons learned with your workmates can be a powerful way to promote safe behaviour.
By definition, a Safety Share should be an impromptu comment or discussion initiated by the worker with his or her peers. However, our client found that their workers were reluctant to start a discussion, but were happy to contribute once the topic had been raised.
To facilitate this important safety discussion, we researched a number of ‘incidents’ ranging from mishaps around the house to industry emergencies and developed a prompt sheet that the supervisor could read out. The Safety Share prompt sheet consisted of the following headings:
- Location of incident (the closer to the workplace, the better)
- Description of Event (the more relevant to the workplace, the better)
- Immediate actions taken at the scene
- Long term actions taken by the organisation
- Question to the group: Does anyone have a suggestion on additional controls that may be relevant to this situation?
- Summary of lessons learned.
Safety Shares are based on an actual event. They help us to learn valuable lessons that can be applied to everyday life – at work and at home.
You can develop your own library of Safety Shares just remember to make it relevant to your workplace and your workers and write it in simple language, just pretend you are talking to a mate.
Have a look at the free Safety Shares on our website for some ideas, or contact us to develop a range of Safety Shares relevant to your industry or workplace.
Why not start a safety conversation at your workplace?
Sources:
1. Pertrain, Safety Shares, http://www.pertrain.com.au/shop/downloads/free-safety-shares/
