140 Character Safety Meeting

I keep hearing from Safety Supervisors how the new Gen Y workers seem to have a great distaste for safety manuals. And they should. They've never really had to read anything over 140 characters long in the last few years. Oh sure, there was that University thing, but other than that...

Gen Y is the interactive, YouTube-video, short-burst, short-attention-span, make-it-entertaining generation of workers. The old binders full of pages and dividers aren't going to do it for this group.

You have a problem: you need to get what's in those manuals into their heads. They have a problem: it's freakin' boring.

SAFETY ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: How about doing what they're doing? Use the technology they're already using to get them where they are. How about text-messaging (SMS) a safety regulation in under 140 characters? Or how about setting up a Twitter account for your safety regs and force them (as a condition of employment) to subscribe to your Twitter feeds. Set up a "hashtag" like #yourcompanysafety and get your Gen Y's to get on board.

Every time they check their cell phones for either text messages or Twitter, you will have placed at least one new safety regulation/tip and it will help them to develop that Attitude of Safety that they need to help get your company to Zero.

Sample ideas:
PPE check. Hat, boots, gloves, eyes, hearing, all good? Look around. Who isn't good? What can you do to fix it right now? (124 characters)
Stop. Look up and all around. There's a potential hazard somewhere. Are you going to ignore it or address it? You choose. (125 characters)
Toolbox meeting at 3pm today. Just inside front gate of site. John has new info on yesterday's near gas breach. (111 characters)

Safety Attitude is about doing what's necessary to make sure crews are safe. Do what you've got to do. And stop thinking about how you've always done it. That's not working anymore.