How to Conduct a Successful Safety Meeting

Safety meetings can be a powerful asset in your toolbox for a strong safety campaign. In trucking however, it’s difficult to get everyone in the same room during their off-hours. It’s even more challenging to create a curriculum that your drivers actually want to be a part of on their off day.

Your job in safety is create a meeting agenda that your drivers will want to attend because they know they’ll improve their craft by attending. Hint: PowerPoints and lectures aren’t going to cut it.

Holding effective safety meetings mostly comes down to your preparation, effort and attitude. The more prepared you are and the more effort you put into the meeting, the more effective it will be.

Preparation entails going over what the meeting will cover, getting materials and topics ready, setting up any necessary equipment and ensuring there is room for all those who will take part in the meeting.

The right attitude is also very important in conducting a safety meeting. Safety is a serious issue but that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun. People learn more when they’re having fun and engaged in the topic. Your employees look up to you to lead them and if you have the right attitude at these meetings, eventually so will they.

This will lead to an understanding between you and your employees that these meetings have a purpose. Your effort and enthusiasm will show your employees you care about their safety. In turn, they will put more effort into the meeting making it much more productive and effective.

There are many other elements that affect whether or not safety meetings are successful, but they all come down to the effort you put in, how prepared you are and having the right attitude. This may sound simple enough and in fact it is.

Below are some tips and a step-by-step guide that will assist you in holding safety meetings. Don’t be afraid to put your own spin on the process. You know your employees the best and can tailor each meeting to fit what they will respond to the best. This is just a guide to make sure all bases are covered.

Tips For The Safety Meeting:

• Encourage Questions – It’s how people learn
• Lead by example – Your employees will follow your lead
• Ask for feedback – There’s always something you can improve on
• Mistakes are good – If someone gets a question wrong, it becomes a great opportunity to learn
• Put your spin on the meeting – Share your stories and examples whenever relevant and make the meeting your own

Step-by-Step Guide

• Review all materials you want/need to go over in the meeting. Make sure you read or re-read the materials to ensure you have an understanding of what is to be covered
• Make sure you have the necessary materials to conduct the meeting. This can include papers, pencils, a television, computer, etc
• If you have media to play, make sure you have a secure internet connection and print out the study guides for your employees. There are also supervisor cards for you to use if you choose to. Go through the course yourself to get a feel for what it’s all about. Be sure to enter your login information right before the meeting to have the lesson ready
• In the days leading up to the meeting remind your employees that the meeting is coming up. Remind them when and where. It’s also a good idea to let everyone know what the topic of the meeting is so they start to think about it

Meeting

• Make sure to greet all employees who attend the meeting
• As the meeting begins, introduce the topic and begin discussing the points you want to cover
• As you go through the meeting continually ask your employees questions and for any feedback or input they have
• If you have media then play it. Then make sure to hand out study guides or any accompanying materials to the employees
• As the videos play stay in the room and make sure to answer any questions. Remind your employees after the video that they will have to complete the quiz under their own user logins
• As you conclude the meeting, summarize the most important points and again ask if anyone has anything else to share
• Thank everyone for attending the meeting

• Follow up to make sure the employees are taking their quizzes
• Ask for feedback on the meeting and how it could be better next time