Since the onset of COVID-19, many organizations have been connecting with their distanced employees through electronic means and virtual meetings. Most safety professionals would freely admit that safety stand-downs were poorly executed even before COVID; having to conduct them in an online environment brings new challenges to that process. Gone are the days of packing people into a big hall for an hours-long meeting followed by a buffet lunch. If the pandemic has taught workplace safety experts anything, it's that companies must improve their in-house safety protocols—including safety meetings.
Many fleet safety professionals have outfitted their fleet truck cabs with tablets. Now, instead of exiting their trucks and heading inside a building for safety meetings, drivers "huddle" together via video conference. Many safety officials report that no longer having coworkers look at each other in person has actually raised engagement levels in the safety meetings. Clearly, it's time to rethink the safety stand-down. The old, in-person, safety stand-down format is not going to cut it anymore. At the same time, though, simply moving the meeting to video isn't the solution. "Zoom fatigue" is a real thing, and people are unwilling to add even more time in front of a computer screen—and they don't definitely don't want to spend a full day (or even a half day) attending a safety meeting by video.
It's time to dump the endless chart-and-graph PowerPoint slides and number crunching. No more tedious presentations that function mostly to fill blocks of time in the agenda. Safety stand-downs need to be faster and punchier.
Step 1: Keep the core message clear and concise.
Old stand-downs may have run up to a full day. Today's safety teams, however, might have only about an hour to run one. In order to make the most of their short time, they need participants' full attention—which means they need to get to the point quickly.
Developing a core message requires plenty of planning and thought. When crafting this message, the organization's best safety and supervisory minds should work together to brainstorm answers to these questions:
- What is the one key takeaway that we want all of our people to take into the field, regardless of their job function?
- What do we want our people to do that they are not doing now?
- What outcome would we like to see more of?
- What specifically do we want employees to do when they leave the stand-down?
- How do we want employees to support their colleagues in safety?
At the end of the stand-down, attendees should hear a very clear message about what exactly their supervisors and safety professionals want them to do. That instruction should be boiled down to a core phrase of seven or fewer words.
Step 2: Get supervisors to support the stand-down core message.
Simply put, employees do what their supervisors do: employees figure out what is important to their bosses and then do what the bosses deem important. That's why it's key that supervisors understand and buy into the organization's new stand-down core message.
Supervisors must willingly support the core message in the field. Ideally, it should be rolled out to them in advance (even if just by a few hours) of the stand-down. Helping supervisors to feel like an integral part of the organization's safety success will go a long way toward getting their support for the stand-down's goals.
No position has more influence over the day-to-day activities of front-line employees than that of the front-line supervisor. Without their support, the core message cannot be sustained in the field. Not only do these supervisors need to buy into the messaging, but—more importantly—they need to understand their role in supporting the safety message and safety program. It's critical to include supervisors as a part of the solution.
Step 3: Create a follow-up strategy.
Gaining supervisors' support is only part of the overall strategy. To ensure that the stand-down isn't a one-and-done event, its core message must be reinforced at all levels of the organization over a period of at least nine or ten months. Stating the core message in seven or fewer works makes it possible to remind people of it without subjecting them to a vague, long, drawn-out, word salad. Get to the point first, and then do the work to repeat that core message as often as possible and in as many ways as possible.
Planning for sustained messaging should address these questions:
- How will we expose our employees to the core message of safety over the next year?
- What reminders and visual triggers will we use?
- How will we incorporate that core message into toolbox and tailgate meetings?
- Can senior managers reference the core message in their communications?
- Follow up, follow up, follow up! Without adequate follow-up, safety communications will end up being viewed as a "flavor of the week": easily ignored and quickly forgotten. For a stand-down plan to be successful, it needs to include a long-term strategy to win people over to it.
The Big Picture
Implementing these three steps takes some hard work, but the reward is well worth the effort. With the pandemic already forcing organizations to review many of their usual procedures, this is a terrific opportunity for them to update one that's needed an overhaul for quite a while.