I have been asked to 'sum' up health and safety for an organisation in 2 slides. It will form part of a larger Induction presentation. I don't think it's possible to do a good job in 2 slides- and the corresponding time spent talking to them. Am I wrong? Have you ever been asked to do this and managed to condense overall H&S in a meaningful way in a very short period of time? I'd be really interested in your views.

It all depends what sort of environment you are working in but I would be pushed to ‘do H&S’ in two slides for an induction. After much hacking and whining we have cut our H&S induction to 15 slides taking about 45 minutes- this covers: • why H&S is important (basically countering the stuff that the Daily Mail churns out!) • What your responsibilities are • overall framework (who does what) • what you need to be told by your line manager when you get to your actual place of work(where a local induction must take place) • Fire safety issue-what an alarm sounds like where to go during an evacuation, what to do if a fire brakes out • First aid procedure • Incident reporting • How to get in touch with Occupational Health. Then we also provide others sessions for more specialised employees such an introduction to H&S in labs or H&S for fieldworkers. If we had time we could spend longer. Our Fire Safety guy has been told that we should be spending half a day just on that subject. Two slides is not enough

sara 1967 Does anyone actively prevent you from picking out the statement of values of your organisation and presenting it as 'slide 1' and adding 'this means working safely!'? I've seen very very effective communication about safety (and other important matters). Sadly, I can also recall very, very lengthy and hard-to-decipher communications about safety from a self-important EHS Manager that evoked the direct clear response from managers to him, 'Safety from you isn't worth laughing at!'.

There is nothing worse than 'death by Powerpoint' so the fewer the slides the better. A decent trainer would be able to talk about the subject animatedly enough with no slides. It's all about presentation and you, as the presenter, is the main attraction, not the slides.

Sara, Are you being asked to sum up H&S generally or specifically H&S in your organisation? If the former then you could simply use the essence of that old favourite “5 minute safety management show”. It can apply to any level as we all 'manage' safety 1. Do you know the hazards in your operation? 2. Do you know how they are managed? 2.1. Is that enough? 3. Even if you think you have it covered have you thought about... 3.1. What could go wrong 3.2. How could it happen 3.3. What would you do about it? 4. How will you keep track of your plans? If the latter, then link to specifics. I would also go for pictorial slides, perhaps with a text box, and then talk over them. But beware! 2 slides means 'short and sweet' methinks. 5 minutes no more ;-) good luck p48

I am sorry but a number of people seem to think that some fuzzy warm feeling statements are all that you need in an H&S induction. Yes we all want to get home safe and yes H&S is everybody’s responsibility but it is these pious platitudes that give H&S a bad name. It’s like saying; it’s just a matter of common sense. Unfortunately common sense won’t tell you how to contact a first aider, what to do if there is a fire, and how to report an injury. The challenge is to engage staff and get them to feel that they are part of the system and that they system is being run for their benefit. Yes I use PowerPoint but mainly so that I have evidence that I am doing the training and to display some plans of the site and to play back the different alarms that we use on the site. This morning the PC broke down and I was able to do the presentation without the protection of PowerPoint, relying on handouts, hand held diagrams and some arm waving. It still took about 30 minutes.

'Induction' for who?

Hi Sara, Slide 1 - From your experience what does Health and Safety look and feel like? (Would work really well if you had a group) Slide 2 - Dont need slide 2; "Wing it" based on their response, attitude and experience and your own knowledge and experience.....not only do you have a bespoke induction every time, you have engaged and opened dialouge! To learn is to listen,..... Its a novel idea.

Sara - inductions are an introduction to the company. A new starter will be bombarded with information in the first week from very department - so you can't and shouldn't try to get everything across at an induction. A photograph of one of your employees carrying out work typical of your organisation (slide 1) with the next slide with them with their families (slide 2) Message - how do we all work together to ensure everyone goes home healthy and safe - We all have a part to play. Give them something they will remember and want to be a part off. Rules, past safety performance, procedures, risk assesemnts etc - these are separate 'induction/training sessions' with their line manager, collegues etc as part of the worker engagement process.