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.
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.
According to the the research paper "Relative Effectiveness of Worker Safety and Health Training Methods" from the American Journal of Public Health in February 2006, engaging safety training is three times more effective than the least engaging methods in promoting knowledge and skill acquisition. In addition, the most engaging methods of safety training are, on average, most effective in reducing negative outcomes such as accidents.
How the safety speech is written depends upon it's form of delivery (eg: written speech for the annual report, face to face presentation to staff or video presentation) and the audience. Ideally, the speech is tailored as much as possible to the particular group of workers as this will get more traction.
Getting new starters up to speed as quickly possible should be the goal of every company. Yet, sadly, most companies tend to induct new starters with boring reading materials and little training support.
According to research by Recruitment Solutions in April 2007, 47% of employee turnover occurs within the first 90 days of employment. With 60% of respondents highlighting induction improvements as a priority area for investment.