Effective Communication is Required to Ensure Safety in the Workplace

How can you be sure your message is getting across? Communicating occupational safety and health information effectively is crucial to preventing employee injuries and illnesses.

Remember the Four Traits of Successful and Effective Safety Communication are:

1. Interactive: It flows both ways. You speak about safety and you listen to employees’ concerns and suggestions.
2. Informative: It tells employees what they need to know to work safely under all conditions.
3. Positive: It focuses on the exchange of ideas and information to improve workplace safety and prevent accidents and illnesses.
4. Productive: It allows you to interact successfully with employees and spread your safety message to all who need to hear it.

Watch out for communication barriers. Unfortunately, numerous obstacles can cause communication to break down. 

Some examples of communication barriers are:

• If too much information is being communicated all at once, it can be hard for employees to absorb all those different messages at one time.

• If your message lacks clarity, is confusing or ambiguous, what a worker actually hears might be quite different from what you intended to say.

• If expectations are not clearly defined, you may be unpleasantly surprised by the results. It is important to know and express what you expect to happen as a result of your communication.

• If you communicate a safety message without taking the time to listen carefully to the response of employees, the communication is incomplete. Remember, you have to speak and listen for communication to be successful.

• If you don’t take employees’ concerns and priorities into account, they might not listen to what you have to say.

​

And don’t forget that effective safety communication always begins with your message.  The message is the safety information you want to transfer from your head into the minds and hearts of your employees.

• Before you speak, think carefully about what you want to say. Be as clear as possible about each of the points you want to make.

• Organize your thoughts into a logical sequence for communication.

• Consider your expectations. Do you expect employees to take some action as a result of what you tell them? If so, be sure to be clear about what that action is.

• Keep your communications simple. One safety message at a time, simply and directly stated, is more likely to be heard and understood.

• Be as precise as possible. Use concrete language and examples to explain what you mean so that you leave no room for misinterpretation.

​

At Tradebe, our priorities are safety and the protection of people and the environment.  Safety is a common “water cooler” topic here at Tradebe where a culture of Safety is Top Priority.  If Safety is important to your business, catch the latest buzz: Subscribe Now… 

 ​

“Be Safe - Work Safe. Safety is No Accident!”

Jeremy Paradis, Director of Health & Safety, Tradebe USA

#HealthandSafety #EffectiveCommunication #BeSafeWorkSafe  #SafetyisNoAccident