If you've started to get creative with training, workplace safety videos are probably on your radar as a way to engage your audience. But how do you choose the right clips to encourage your staff to take safety seriously without boring them to tears? Here are three ideas that get you closer to an integrated safety strategy that's both informative and entertaining.
Need Safety Videos for Your Workplace that Resonate? First, Know Your Audience
As you're planning your training regimen, it's easy to fall into the trap of presenting information the way you'd like to see it. However, different age groups, genders and types of workers prefer different learning styles. Paying attention to your team's demographics has a big impact on your program's success.
Typically, we assume only the younger generation prefers video to, say, training manuals or in-person presentations. They do, but that's not the whole picture. According to research from the Interactive Advertising Bureau, for example, 35- to 52-year-olds like long-form video, even in ads on their mobile devices. If your employees are willing to watch tutorials on their phones at home, they are likely to enjoy workplace safety videos -- as long as they're the right type of video.
Another important part of knowing your audience is finding the language that resonates with them so they pay attention. If your group is close-knit and likes to laugh together, a stodgy safety video with stuffed suits talking isn't going to do the trick. Luckily, you can find plenty of funny workplace safety videos, even when it comes to serious topics. Striking a balance is key, because the last thing you need is for safety itself to become the joke. For example, this retro safety in the workplace video is as out of touch as it is funny (for all the wrong reasons).
The Mind Can Absorb Only What the Behind Can Stand
Once you decide what tone your employees appreciate, it's time to determine your strategy for using video to reach your staff. Remember when your science teacher would wheel in a projector or TV to watch a film? The class was excited for a minute, but after awhile, everyone zoned out because their minds got tired as they sat still for too long. That's exactly the reaction you want to avoid as you plan how to use safety videos.
Many times, we think of safety training as an event, often with a real person standing at the front of a room or with an online component and a quiz at the end. When you're using videos, however, you can break that mold and speak to issues as they arise throughout the year without spending too much time off the floor. See an uptick in falls? Put a video on a loop in the break room or email a clip to the departments that are at greater risk for injury.
Remember, safety videos for the workplace don't have to replace standard, in-person presentations. Presenters can integrate video into their schedule as an icebreaker, example or just to shake things up.
Workplace Safety Videos: An Option for Every Budget (Even No Budget at All)
The producers of that retro video charge a couple hundred dollars for their safety videos. We wouldn't suggest you pay for that one, necessarily, but plenty of reputable companies make reputable videos that also keep you in compliance with federal guidelines.
Still, you don't have to spend a ton of money to find videos that deal with the safety topics that matter most to your company. Free workplace safety training videos are prolific on YouTube, including compilations of workplace fails as well as traditional videos.
Of course, OSHA offers a video library with hundreds of options for no charge. Go through their series as well as stand-alone workplace safety video clips for a balance of longer and shorter videos.
Whether you have a training staff on site or are learning how to be a one-person safety department, video is a medium you can count on to hold the attention of everyone from your millennial employees to your seasoned veterans. Get to know what resonates with them, build a strategy to address safety throughout the year, and take advantage of free resources such as OSHA and YouTube to choose workplace safety videos.
