Safety signage packs a powerful message
From machine workstations to factory floors and hand hygiene areas, safety signs play a vital role in communicating health and safety and protecting workers. In May, a new safety signage initiative launched bringing the power of signage-based messaging to construction sites across Australia through monthly signage ‘packs’. Dr JOSEPH BRENNAN speaks with its founders.
Site Safety Alliance (SSA) is the latest venture from Michael Blumberg, who has spent the last five years developing safety messages on construction sites through his ‘Target Tradies’ initiative and the specific medium of posters. Now, together with co-founder and construction industry safety veteran Garry Mansfield, Blumberg is broadening the scope of safety signage on construction sites with SSA and its monthly safety packs, which are designed to enhance a mainstay of the construction sector’s safety conversation: the toolbox talk.
The toolbox talk
“Construction companies today typically approach safety communication through consultation and usually through a meeting called a ‘toolbox talk’,” Mansfield said, “but it can be challenging for management to meaningfully connect with workers when there are so many rules and regulations [and] messages coming ‘from the top down’.” Each Toolbox Talk pack contains a variety of safety signage formats, updated monthly in line with specific top priority safety issues and informed by industry research.
“These Toolbox Talk packages save time and cost by providing site managers with everything they need to present an engaging, effective and consistent safety and wellbeing message for one or multiple sites,” Mansfield said. “Our aim is to democratise safety and make it relatable to workers on all levels. We provide the tools to allow managers and supervisors to work collaboratively with workers to achieve mutually beneficial safety outcomes.”
Topics to be covered in the packs include: electrical hazards, falls from height, housekeeping and nutrition, and will be updated to meet the needs of construction and infrastructure sites around Australia. “Falls from height will be our first priority,” Mansfield said, “because this is still one of the biggest killers on construction sites in Australia, and there are steps that can be taken to minimise risk and save lives.”
With toolbox talks being a mainstay of the construction sector’s safety strategy, the founders also point out that such packs can help enhance a company’s return on investment (ROI) when it comes to safety programs. “If you attribute a dollar amount to conducting weekly consultation onsite — typically through a Monday morning toolbox talk — you realise that these essential and important meetings are also expensive to hold,” Mansfield said.
“The whole site is being paid, but they aren’t working for that time. It’s essential for site managers or supervisors to maximise the value that they can get for this time and focus it on relevant issues onsite,” Mansfield said. “To deliver real ROI during this time, Site Safety Alliance has developed highly professional materials and a platform delivery system for site managers to truly engage their workers at these sessions.”
Posters pack a punch
Posters are perhaps the most important element of the Toolbox Talk packs. These are intended to be placed around worksites and on site notice boards and in first aid rooms, as well as in places where workers gather or take downtime, such as lunchrooms, washrooms and site sheds — the intention being for workers to absorb the messaging in a relaxed atmosphere that optimises engagement.
“The Toolbox Talks set the safety theme and focus for the site for the month,” Blumberg explained. “The posters are used to promote and expand the theme and draw workers into the integrated campaign — where digital and social media campaigns keep the messaging engaging, relevant and effective throughout the month with feedback loops.”
Blumberg’s work with Target Tradies taught him much about the power of safety posters in construction, with exit interview research they commissioned revealing high levels of retention by workers of the key messages within their posters. “The posters are the perfect mix of art and science, with significant behavioural science research behind the messaging, developed over more than five years of visiting construction sites and seeking genuine feedback,” Blumberg said.
“The posters have been deliberately designed to maximise impact and cut-through,” Blumberg added. “They don’t look like usual site posters because they are not. They will entice and intrigue viewers and encourage them to read them, so that they take the time to consider and understand the messages on them.”
Keeping it fresh
“Through our Target Tradies initiatives, we also found that it’s important to keep the message fresh,” Blumberg said. “There’s no point keeping a message onsite for 6 months in a row, because workers will start to tune it out. Instead, changing the theme monthly is a highly effective way to drive ground-up engagement,” Blumberg added. The intention is to “engage and involve”, but not to “instruct”, Blumberg said. The philosophy is simple: real impact comes when “the messages are written in a fresh, real and open manner. This is all part of maximising the impact opportunity and bringing home the importance of the theme.”
A built-in commitment to keeping the message fresh also means that this initiative is well placed to dynamically respond to current issues, such as the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) on workers’ mental health and wellbeing. Through a special ‘Headspace COVID-19’ Toolbox Talk pack, resources are now available for building, construction and infrastructure companies that are operating under new COVID-19 procedures. These resources are designed to help support on-site workers to cope with increased pressure and the changes in routine that have been brought on by the pandemic.
“We know this situation is only temporary, but we need to make sure we all stay focused and remain vigilant around site safety. COVID-19 has brought numerous additional procedures to the everyday workings of a site, and while everyone is complying with these requirements, we should continue to reinforce our ongoing focus on safety and wellbeing of our workforces during this time,” Mansfield said. “We have a number of resources for construction sites to assist workers with maintaining wellbeing during COVID-19, and maintaining it once the virus has gone.”
“We leave the legislative stuff to the regulators,” Mansfield said about the initiative’s place in the safety space. “Our role is to complement compliance and connect from the ground up in a way that cuts through complexity, language and cultural barriers that exist on site, with messaging that resonates with workers as individuals, encouraging them to act in positive ways around the content being presented.”
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