Safety communications – Is it worth the risk?

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In the work that we do for our clients on safety communications, raising awareness of risk is one of our top challenges. It’s all very well a company having a risk assessment process but it’s no good if this is just seen as a tedious process, involving the filling in of forms that just ‘get in the way’ of getting the job done. With attitudes amongst staff such as ‘it won’t hurt just this once’ or ‘it’s never happened before’, it certainly is a challenge to get people to question ‘is it worth the risk?’.

Dynamic risk assessment

Even the nature of risk assessment is changing, as more and more companies are starting to embrace ‘dynamic risk assessment’. A generic risk assessment before a process starts may not necessarily allow for a change in circumstances as the job goes along. Dynamic risk assessment is a continuous process of identifying hazards and helping you manage risks as they arise. It works alongside the generic risk assessment to create a safer place of work.

Thinking ‘on the hoof’

So, this adds a whole new dimension to safety communications as we now need to encourage workers to use this approach, to think ‘on the hoof’ and apply dynamic risk assessment in their everyday tasks.

Keeping it real

This type of training lends itself perfectly to interactive workshops. What better way to encourage dynamic risk assessment than to immerse the trainees in ‘real life’ scenarios where they are put in control of what happens next. We have taken this a step further on a number of occasions by creating short films of life like situations with a number of outcomes which depend on actions taken by the trainees. By placing the person in a position of responsibility – even in a ‘pretend’ situation, you can create a powerful message about the likelihood of accidents arising from risks taken – it’s a game of chance after all.

The possibilities for this type of training and communication are endless but it provides the perfect springboard for lively discussion and debate – which takes us back to our ultimate aim of raising awareness of risk and promoting safe behaviour.