When you think about it, the health and safety induction accounts for a fair proportion of those all important “first impressions” of your organisation.
It’s also an important communication process not only for the new employee’s sake but for the safety culture of an organisation as well.
I often wonder where organisations use a dedicated person to deliver all their inductions, no matter who that person is, just how he or she maintains the quality of their presentations throughout the year.
Similarly, those inductions that are delivered via power point or a written document, is that document or power point creating the type of first impressions that your organisation is looking for?
Or perhaps more importantly; is it communicating the information in an efficient and engaging manner?
The beauty of video – A key to first impressions
An obvious solution to ensure efficiency and engagement is by using video to deliver the induction. They say a picture says a thousand words, with video there are up to 25 different pictures every second.
This will ensure that your health and safety messages can be delivered as succinctly and efficiently as possible.
Health and safety for many is a relatively dry topic. By trying to make the learning process as engaging as possible, you’ll not only help to ensure important information is retained, but also create a positive impression of your organisation.
The beauty of video is it will complement any practical face-to-face training, or interactive online training you deliver.
A few thoughts for a health and safety induction video
Some say video is too expensive! With a bit of creative thinking, this is not necessarily as expensive as one might imagine. Furthermore, half the battle can be finding a video that not only communicates all the information you require, but is relevant and is presented in style that will suit your workers…. a video that will create a great first impression!
There are a multitude of generic “off the shelf” induction programs on the market today. Perhaps the spoken message might be all that you want but many of the visuals do not look anything like your workplace which would not only reduce the engagement factor but flat out confuse any new inductee …… “I am starting work on a construction site, why are they showing me footage of a nurse in a hospital?”
A cost-effective idea
We had a client recently select a few modules from our “off the shelf” Induction Program.
- We provided them with a detailed list of shots of their workplace to replace our generic footage.
- They then sent out a staff member with their mobile phone to capture each of the shots on our list.
- We then edited their program by moving through each photo to give the production movement and colour.
A simple treatment option that delighted the customer with an induction video to create that great first impression.
It’s no doubt vital to look at your existing health and safety induction process, and evaluate metrics such as cost and time, and whether it’s ticking all the boxes from a legal standpoint. However, it’s also certainly worthwhile to ask yourself.. “what first impressions is our health and safety induction creating?”.