A great way to increase employee engagement in safety is to involve them in teams that develop, evaluate and provide training on emergency drills.
The U.S. Department of Defense has a really good program along these lines, called Drop Cards.
Drop Cards
An employee takes a card that has an emergency scenario on it and gives it to another employee.
In that moment, the other employee reads the card and, based on the scenario, will react appropriately, understanding that this is a drill.
The employee who brought the Drop Card will observe what the other worker does and provide a critique.
This not only involves employees in safety, it also really bolsters their emergency preparedness.
(Adapted from a presentation by Brad Baptiste, OSHA Regional VPP Manager, Denver, at VPPPA’s Next Level Safety conference)
