I had a dear client as me, “How do I get an orientation video that is customized to my people, my hazards and my work environment? Who do I go to? Where can I access it? What is the best way of doing it?”
I answered, “With today’s technological advances it is very powerful to create your own health and safety video.”
Get somebody with a camera and get out there and videotape your hazards, your environment, and your sites tied in together with a PowerPoint presentation that is generic so it discusses the general things they need to know in an orientation such as emergency procedures, incident reporting, employer policies and practices. Then also have a site specific component tied to each site like the sound of the alarms, the muster points, the evacuation procedures. That type of thing. In this way you will very easily and cheaply have a video that relates to the hazards of your site, is done by your employees so they have ownership into it and it generates some excitement around it as well.
Now a couple of caveats: make sure that you don’t video tape unsafe procedures. As a safety person you have to ensure that what you show is the best practices unless you want to have something like the good, the bad, and the ugly. Then you show this is what you don’t do because you can get hurt, or this is what you don’t do because it represents a hazard or risk. You can show the good, the bad and the ugly. That works very effectively as well.
With an orientation video customized to your site, your clients, and your workers you will have a very powerful tool in your health and safety arsenal. That is a tip that I think you can use and really go far with it.