Back in the 1970s - 1980s, Jimmy Savile was one of the most famous television presenters on the BBC. An effervescent, eccentric man he hosted "Top of the Pops", followed by other children's television shows.
High performance companies integrate safety into every company decision. This is because they realise that the safety of their staff is an important part of how they do business, but also that by looking after safety, staff morale, productivity and even profitability improve.
Companies that are best in class when it comes to safety, all have one thing in common. And that is each employee and contractor takes ownership of their own safety. It's part of their workplace culture.
A great safety speech isn't about telling staff to improve safety. Instead, it's a unique opportunity to motivate staff to work together for a common good.
On a windy day in October 1987, the new CEO of Alcoa, Paul O'Neill, gave his maiden speech to shareholders. Most CEO's would use this opportunity to get shareholders excited that they were going to focus the company on increasing sales and reducing costs, for improved shareholder return. But O'Neill was different.
“I want to talk to you about worker safety.” In an instant, shareholders wondered why he had omitted to talk about improving profits. After all, Alcoa was in a mess.
“Every year, numerous Alcoa workers are injured so badly that they miss a day of work. Our safety record is better than the general workforce, especially considering that our employees work with metals that are 1500 degrees and we have machines that can rip a man’s arm off. But it’s not good enough. I intend to make Alcoa the safest company in America. I intend to go for zero injuries.”
The best safety professionals that I've worked with like safety. They read all the right safety magazines and go to all the right safety conferences. But that's not what gets them out of bed in the morning. What they're really passionate about, and what makes them stand out, is their desire to keep as many people safe as possible.
One of the questions companies often want to know is, how much does it cost to produce customised training videos?
As a safety content producer, I get the rare chance to look at countless standard operating procedures from a variety of large companies.
We use these documents to write clear, friendly scripts, in order to produce training videos that will engage, increase learner understanding and recall. Nearly, 95% of the time, these standard operating procedures are really hard to read and understand. And they're very often wrong.
Mistakes are a healthy part of learning. They're nothing to be embarrassed about, as long as you learn from them and move on. But being sloppy is a totally different story.
In the book First, Break all the Rules by Marcus Buckingham, his research found the relationship between an employee and their manager determined how long an employee will stay in a company and their level of productivity.