how to develop a strong communication system for your safety department

Business thrives on good communication between teams, employees and customers. An area where good communication really is important is health and safety. 

Getting the right message across to workers whether that be in the form of signage, training or toolbox talks is essential when it comes to creating a safe and happy working environment. 

Having a good communication system within your safety department will help you disseminate information to staff that could make a difference when it comes to keeping them safe. 

Here we provide a quick overview of some additions that could improve your safety communication. 

 

1. Include regular stand-ups with the whole team

Stand up meetings are a great way to improve the communication between your internal health and safety team. These short meetings can be held weekly, and if necessary daily and are used to update the team on current work and take care of any small decisions. 

They can help keep everyone informed of the work being carried out and can bring up issues that need to be discussed. 

 

2. Involve the people on the ‘shop floor’ in the ideation process

When you are developing health and safety policies it is easy for your department to work on a purely top-down approach, but involving workers within the decision and ideation process will help to increase compliance and improve the levels of communication between all those in the organisation. 

 

3. Pick up the phone if emails are getting diluted

If an issue has cropped up it is important to get it addressed, however email may not always be the best solution. 

Whilst we are not necessarily advocating for excessive video conference calls, picking up the phone to talk someone through the issue can often be more productive and effective than email. Whilst these conversations can prove uncomfortable, they can make your communication more efficient and reduce stress in the long run. 

 

4. Be open to the idea of an EHS management system

A good communication system is built on basic principles, and these principles then need to be followed through with. 

If you are looking to take your EHS management and communication to the next level, then a digital health and safety solution could prove useful. 

Many providers offer tools for reporting and event tracking that can really improve the efficiency of your health and safety department. 

If you reduce the time needed for communication, you can focus on the more value-adding pieces of work that can improve the health and safety of your organisation.

 

Some EHS management options 

HSE Network works with a series of EHS software vendors whose software helps with the whole process from analytics to communication. Here is a breakdown of some of the key providers and what they specialise in.