Every employee has the right to a safe workplace. Even more so for those in a warehouse or manufacturing setting, where the risk of injury is higher. But how do many organizations communicate critical safety regulations, procedures, and related company goals?
Well, there’s that old standby, the poster in the break room or throughout the warehouse. It may as well be wallpaper. Internal email newsletters are another traditional option. But that severely limits your “must see” messaging with an average open rate of 69 percent and a click-through of just 6 percent. And that’s only if your employees can even access email while they’re working, which is off-limits to many warehouse/manufacturing employees.
The blitz of safety procedures and regulations delivered by management during job onboarding and training is 70 percent forgotten after 24 hours — and 90 percent gone within a week. (LearningSolutionsMag.com) There must be a better solution for your company and your safety content.
Digital signage can be the centerpiece of your effective workplace safety communication strategy — but only if these signs are updated on a regular basis to leverage the considerable strengths of this technology: vibrant, interactive, engaging. These 5 strategies can help you maximize your investment in these screens — and help to ensure the overall safety of employees throughout your workplace.
1. Have a Workplace Safety Plan
Developing a workplace safety plan for your digital signage is the first step to using these screens effectively. Start with a simple content calendar of topics to bring structure and perspective to the process.
You have safety benchmarks to meet. What are the key messages that employees need to see to achieve those safety goals? Outline your messaging and plan to communicate it in an engaging way. A modern workplace experience platform provides numerous solutions to represent a wide variety of visually compelling content types across your screens: video, animation, infographics and more
2. Keep Digital Safety Signage Messaging Fresh
Just like the safety posters fading away in the breakroom, a digital safety sign will gather dust if not updated frequently. Refresh those screens on a regular basis to break content out of the background and get your employees to see your safety content with fresh yes. Develop a cadence for your content and rotate the messaging on a schedule.
For example, pick a different safety topic to highlight every two weeks and cycle through them. Fresh content is essential to keeping employees engaged, and an engaged employee is ultimately a safer employee.
Adding a workplace experience platform as the centralized control for all your digital signage can further enhance this, with a content management system that will publish safety messaging on a timed schedule and even to targeted audiences.
3. Reinforce Workplace Safety Training
When you use digital signage to continually educate your workforce on the best safety practices and new regulations, you are also developing a culture of health and safety. Frequent reinforcement of important procedures and small reminders add up over the long-term, and reinforce the bigger initiatives, such as yearly safety compliance training courses.
In related fashion, you can use your employee communications platform to create and rotate in digital signage messages related to number of days without a safety incident, or highlighting team members who have completed their training. In this way your employees see your screens as highly relevant displays of the many ways in which they are acting as safety champions for your industry.
4. Encourage Employee Feedback with Digital Signs
Your digital signage can be more than one-way communication. Adding links or QR codes to the content on your displays, or setting up specific kiosks with interactive features, such as displays with touch screen technology. This can create a two-way system for workers to communicate transformative information back to management.
They are the people closest to the manufacturing floor, the crowded warehouse, the ins-and-outs of the day to day — and their unique insights can provide innovative solutions when it comes to avoiding hazards and improving safety. Using your displays to involve employees in this level of feedback also tells them they are valued resources with valuable ideas to contribute to your company’s culture of safety.
5. Highlight Workplace Safety Success
Positive reinforcement is one of the most powerful tools to foster and maintain a behavior. Emphasize safety training programs by using your digital signage to show real-life video examples of employees being safe on the job. By using digital signage to highlight team progress toward a collective safety goal, your screens play an important role in keeping these overarching goals top of mind throughout the year.
While workplace safety is everyone’s responsibility, it starts with a comprehensive plan — and depends on the most compelling way to represent this critical information in memorable and meaningful ways. Digital signage solutions have proven to be one of the most immediate and impactful forms of communication.
With a strategy and safety calendar in place, and the right workplace experience platform delivering your digital visual content, your digital screens are ready to drive employee safety awareness — consistently and effectively. Look to digital signage to create a safe workplace that can have a positive impact on employee morale, productivity, retention —and ultimately, your company’s bottom line.