General Industry Safety Talks

Although many general industry operations do not change dramatically daily; many hazards can cause injury. Injury statistics released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics each year reveal that workers are injured on the job in the hundreds of thousands.

While the construction industry is the one that has the largest number of workplace fatalities, these tragedies also happen in other industries far too often as well. Many of these accidents are caused by the same hazards that can cause fatalities. It is necessary to follow safe working practices and educate employees about safety topics to prevent workplace injuries.

The Importance of Safety Toolbox Talks

Besides the hazards mentioned above, the workplace contains several potential hazards that may endanger workers. There are many unique hazards that workers can encounter on general industry job sites, even though these sites are not as dynamic and constantly changing as construction sites are.

A safety meeting about safety topics held before work or at the beginning of work is recommended to prevent workplace injuries. If employees spend just five minutes discussing safety topics before starting work each day, this translates into more than 1,250 minutes of safety education per employee every year! Those are more than 20 hours of safety education!

During this time, you should choose topics relevant to your employees and the issues they may encounter in their work. There is no reason why you should not stray from the routine safety topics to provide a fresh perspective on safety for those workers, particularly those in the general industry who have been around for a long time and might think they have heard it all.

Managing Complacency Towards Safety 

After providing most of the more basic safety talks, you should consider adding a behavioral-based safety talk to your repertoire. These talks focus more on the ” WHY ” behind safety topics than only discussing the physical hazards you may have repeatedly encountered with your employees.

The fear of becoming complacent will result if you do not develop unique ways to play with safety or give a fresh perspective on an old topic. If your workers have been doing the same task repeatedly for many weeks or months, if you do not switch it up every once in a while, they will become bored during another slip, trip, and fall toolbox talk.

The safety topics provided below may be used at the next safety meeting and for your next safety moment. 

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Daisy Jensen

Daisy is the engine behind Be-Safe.org — from content production to product reviews and more. What drives her is the passion to make home security information easily available.