Without this one element, your toolbox talks will fail.

It’s called called attention. Your team’s attention is one of the most valuable asset.

As a safety manager when preparing your toolbox talks its best to use formats that will keep your employees attention.

They’re many ways you can deliver your talks and we won’t cover every single format because not all of them are as effective as these 3.

We are going to talk about how you can keep your employees hooked with these 3 formats.

And some guidelines on how to implement them. 

We’re going start from bottom to top, saving the best for last.

Format #3: Use Simple Slide Presentations

There’s a reason why PowerPoint presentations are so popular.

It’s because they work.

You can use PowerPoint for something like this and as it comes with many features.

However, for the sake of simplicity and ease of use, I would recommend using an alternative tool like Slides to create presentation toolbox talks.

For this example, here’s a quick a toolbox talk about 4 tips when using ladders on on job.

If you can use Microsoft word, you can learn this tool is less than 20 minutes.

Checklist to when creating toolbox talk presentations

• Get to the point and avoid fluff
• Make sure that you use big bold font sizes that are easy to read. 
• Avoid using fancy font styles. Use a simple style like Arial that looks well on all devices
• Don’t go overboard with colors. 
• After you have created the slides time yourself and see how long it takes for you to read the slides, Try your best to keep short toolbox talks under 1 minute and 30 seconds.

Format #2: Audio-based Toolbox Talks

This is perfect for toolbox talks that doesn’t require much visualization.

In 2021 audio consumption is on the rise and its one of the most underutilized form of content.

According to the Nielsen, audio content is seeing a dramatic growth as a result of podcasts.

Does this mean you need to create a podcast? 

Of course not!

What this data tells us is that people are more open to consuming audio, which means your is team members will be opened to it as well. 

Here’s an example of a audio toolbox talk that teaches employees about proper incidents response protocol.

Click the play button to listen.

Or it can be something as simple as reminding employees about a critical safety protocol. 

A safety manager could simply record a quick 30 seconds talk on their phone.

Upload the file to Safelyio, schedule the time and date for it to go out to your team.

And its done.

Don’t worry, you don’t have to sound like a news broadcaster, just talk normally, clearly and with confidence.

Checklist to use when creating audio-based toolbox talk 

• Write down the main points you want to bring a cross and practice it out loud before recording
• Make sure to talk clearly and avoid background noises
• Run a few test recordings just to make sure your delivery is good enough.
• Remember it doesn’t have to be perfect. As long as your team can understand what you’re saying its good.
• Keep your recordings under 1-2 minutes. Anything over that you will struggle to keep your employees attention.

Format #1: Video Toolbox Talks

Video is the undisputed king of educational content. It’s everywhere and it’s only getting bigger

As a safety professional you should use this to your advantage.

I can guarantee you that video toolbox talks will hold your employees attention as opposed to just standing and reading from a piece of paper.

The combination of visuals and audio makes it one of the best methods to deliver your safety talks.

From my own experience managing teams, employees always look forward to the new toolbox videos, even asking me when new ones are coming out.

Checklist to use when using video toolbox talks

If you plan to create videos yourself make sure to follow these guidelines.

• Keep your videos no longer than 1-3 minutes. Based on our data that’s the ideal timeframe for quick video toolbox talks is 1 minute and 30 seconds.
• If you plan to do a voiceover make sure it’s easy to understand and that you the words enunciated properly.
• Use relevant imagery to enhance your content.
• Avoid using too much jargon, instead use easy to understand terms. Keep it very simple.
• If you plan to use background music instead of a voiceover make sure that it complements the content, not overpower it.

The easier way to use video toolbox talks without creating them yourself 

When I was the health and safety manager for my region at my previous company, creating and managing the videos was extremely hard to do.

I knew they video talks were powerful and the employees loved them but doing them consistently was hard. 

So I always struggled with that. 

Its’s one of the reason why I started Safelyio, to make the whole process easier for safety professionals.

You get a library of video talks that you can use right of the box. We can even create custom toolbox talks for your company.

With Safelyio, I can now schedule video talks for weeks and months in advance and it will be delivered to team members mobile via SMS.

Fully automated! 

Here’s how simple it is to do in Safelyio 

Here’s an example.

I’m going to search for a video toolbox talk about “Slips, Trips and Falls” in the toolbox library. Here we located a video that talks about that topic.

You can preview the video talk before copying it to your campaign.

Lastly, I’ll schedule the date and time for the talk to be delivered to my employees mobile via SMS.

That’s it.

Final Thoughts 

Building a safety-first culture at your company shouldn’t be an uphill battle.

In this age of technology, you should leverage automation tools like Safelyio to make the process easier.

If you want to have a talk with us about how Safelyio can transform your company’s safety environment, reach out to us here.