When it comes to successful construction project management, common metrics for success include scope, cost, schedule, and quality performance. Completing a project as per plan within budget and on schedule is important, but safety is also a critical factor for project success.
Construction sites are often filled with hazards, including heavy machinery, power tools, and dangerous areas such as ladders, scaffolding, and confined spaces. Whether you’re a contractor, an owner, or a construction management consultant, it’s important to create and cultivate a culture of safety.
Construction safety talk topics are necessary for discussing ongoing and anticipated hazards for the job. Some topics will be obvious due to the nature of the work. For companies and organizations within the construction industry, you can develop a collective mindset for safety by taking time out to discuss safe practices.
Even when you’re meeting with clients or business partners, discussing safety topics for construction industry shows your commitment to the health and wellness of your employees, clientele, and subcontractors or subconsultants.
Implementing Safety Talk Ideas Into a Plan
One of the best practices for construction businesses is to have an overall safety management approach that covers all projects. Each assignment or project will have a specific plan that is developed by the project manager, a safety coordinator or manager, a superintendent, and company principals.
Making safety talk ideas a part of every meeting, whether external or internal, becomes a habit that develops into a culture. When you have a culture that prioritizes safety, it boosts productivity, performance, and reputation, especially among clients and competitors.
Coming up with construction safety talk topics shouldn’t be something that a leader or manager comes up with at the last minute. A safety coordinator or manager should strongly consider developing an internal resource for safety topics in advance.
Managers and supervisors can consult this repository whenever there’s a meeting with workers, business partners, clients, subcontractors, suppliers, and even the public. When good practices are formalized as standard operating procedures, you build a culture of safety within your organization that spreads outward.
Curating 100 Safety Topics for Daily Toolbox Talk
During an active construction project, safety discussions should be primarily focused on site- or project-specific concerns. For example, a water pipeline construction project might include toolbox talks about confined spaces, temporary shoring, and locating emergency shutoff valves.
No matter the project, there are topics that are universal for construction operations, as well as ones that extend to locations outside of the workplace. Consider the following 100 topics for your daily toolbox talks with project personnel.
OSHA Construction Safety Topics
Many owners require contractors to provide field personnel who are trained on the topics covered by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s 10-hour or 30-hour courses. While OSHA doesn’t have requirements regarding daily toolbox talks, you can use OSHA topics for onsite safety discussions.
A quick discussion topic isn’t a substitute for an in-depth talk about planned work and site safety. These discussions should enhance or complement elements of an overall project or site-specific safety approach:
- Cranes and derricks
- Confined spaces
- Demolition
- Electrical
- Elevated work (e.g., ladders, scaffolding, and other platforms)
- Excavations and trenches
- Fall protection compliance
- Personal protective equipment (e.g., hard hats, safety goggles, gloves, ear plugs, and hard-toe boots)
- Silica exposure
Actively discussing safety topics for construction industry isn’t just good for regulatory compliance. A reduction in job-related injuries, incidents, and deaths helps to boost productivity, morale, and performance among your workers.
Lower occurrences of issues can also help you get lower premiums when procuring insurance such as workers’ compensation, general liability, professional liability, excess coverages, commercial auto policies, and more.
General Safety Topics for Construction Industry
Construction and general contracting cover a wide assortment of projects. Some topics are applicable to large infrastructure projects such as roads, bridges, buildings, and water conveyance systems. Others are more common in residential construction and associated trades such as electrical, HVAC, mechanical, plumbing, and even landscaping.
You’ll have to determine which subjects are most relevant for crews; however, when it comes to safety there’s no such thing as off-topic or irrelevant. The people in your company lead multifaceted lives and incorporating safe practices into every aspect of life contributes to improved attitudes on safety.
- Asbestos
- Asphalt mixing and pouring
- Concrete mixing, pouring, and curing
- Dust exposure
- Egress and ingress to work zones or job sites
- Emergency action plan (i.e., who to contact internally and externally)
- Excavation preparation (i.e., who to call to locate underground utilities before digging)
- Fire Safety
- Hand tools (e.g., hammers, wire cutters, utility knives, and non-powered tools)
- Hazardous materials and chemicals
- Housekeeping
- Materials testing and sampling
- Night work (e.g., site illumination, special PPE, and fatigue)
- Operating heavy machinery
- Power tools (including tools that run on electrical, mechanical, or pneumatic power)
- Traffic signage, signaling, and pavement markings
- Weather and seasonal changes (e.g., extreme events, working in the cold or the heat, daylight savings time, and natural disasters)
These topics are often important to all field personnel, including those who may work for an owner, a project oversight group, subcontractors, and other third parties. Give special consideration as to whether an in-person discussion or something online is most conducive. As a company, you may not be contractually obligated to present construction safety talk topics to people who don’t work for you, but there’s no downside to encouraging safe practices for all involved.
Behavioral Safety Talk Ideas
Unsafe actions don’t always arise out of ignorance or a lack of training. Often, they arise from unsafe behaviors which are based on attitudes. An employee who is preoccupied or experiencing intense emotions may be distracted or careless. Addressing some of the root factors in behavior can help you reduce injuries, illnesses, and injuries in your operations. Consider the following safety talk ideas for your toolbox discussions:
- Acting responsibly
- Anger management
- Alcohol abuse and drinking on the job
- Bringing children and guests to work
- Chronic health conditions
- Complacency
- Cutting corners at work
- Distractions and lack of attention
- Drug use (prescription, over-the-counter, and illicit)
- Horseplay and playing on the job
- Impairment
- Lack of sleep
- Risky behavior
- Tunnel vision and fatigue
Your employees bring their whole selves to the task at hand. If you’re serious about safety overall, remember that your team’s understanding of unsafe behaviors will influence the culture on your projects and within the office.
Illnesses, Injuries, and Chronic Conditions
Construction worksites may present conditions that make site personnel more vulnerable to certain illnesses or injuries. Working while sick can impair a worker’s judgment, compromising everyone’s safety, especially in the field. Seasonal allergies are also a concern for those working outdoors at certain times of the year. In addition to getting sick, first aid makes for another great toolbox topic. What should you include in a first aid kit for a job site, a field office, or even a company vehicle used for construction? The following are potential construction safety talk topics related to illness and injury:
- Allergies
- Amputations
- Automated external defibrillator usage and training
- Chronic health conditions (e.g., asthma and diabetes)
- Choking hazards
- Coronavirus protocols (including cleaning and disinfection, wearing masks, and oximeter usage)
- Cardiopulmonary resuscitation
- Dehydration and drinking water
- First aid kits and medical supplies in the field
- Flu, common cold, and other illnesses
- Foodborne illnesses
- Heart attacks and strokes
- Medication
- Signs of health issues
- Strains and back pain
- Taking one’s temperature
Getting sick is a matter of “when” and not “if” for most people. Vulnerabilities to disease and chronic health conditions require extra vigilance when it comes to safety performance and safety metrics. While individual health is very much a personal behavior, everyone benefits when there’s a better understanding of how to handle situations related to illness and injury.
Office Safety
Hazards exist everywhere, including the office. You don’t need to operate construction vehicles or powered tools to benefit from safety discussions and best practices. You could find at least 100 safety topics for daily toolbox talk in office spaces alone. Where there are people working around each other, there’s always an opportunity to improve safety culture through conversations and training. These are just a sample of the many topic ideas to improve safety in the workplace:
- Active shooter and workplace violence
- Common office accidents and injuries
- Cyber safety (including topics related to emails, social media, phishing, malware, viruses, and ransomware)
- Elevators and escalators
- Ergonomics
- Eye strain
- Fire drills and safety
- Fire extinguisher knowledge and usage
- Lifting, loading, and bending
- Office equipment
- Organization of work areas
- Parking lot/parking garage safety
- Stress management
- Suicide ideation and prevention
- Working early and late
Companies that are serious about safety know that there’s nowhere on Earth that safety isn’t a concern. It’s not enough to talk the talk and walk the walk in the field. Safety management isn’t just limited to the field or environments with obvious safety hazards. In 2020, private employers reported approximately 2.7 million nonfatal injuries and illnesses in the workplace. While this is a 5.7% decrease from reported incidents in 2019, this is a nonzero number. One office injury is one too many.
Safety Management Topics
Businesses in the construction industry often have employees whose role is to ensure safety 100% of the time. Such roles include a safety manager or officer who develops and administers company policies and safety protocols. This person is often responsible for overseeing assessments and providing training opportunities for staff. A safety auditor may travel from project to project identifying issues related to compliance and prevention. Personnel in the field and office may also provide support in safety management even if their roles aren’t strictly about safety. One example of this is someone who is responsible for overseeing fire drills or accounting for staff in the event of a fire. Topics related to safety management and administration would be great for toolbox topics:
- Audits and assessments
- Bulletin boards
- Budgeting for safe procedures, processes, and products
- Creating safety campaigns
- Identifying and prioritizing safety needs
- Incentivizing and rewarding best practices
- New employee safety onboarding
- Risk management strategies
No safety effort will be successful without a plan. You can use safety talk ideas for generating ideas for initiatives that lead to a maintaining a safer work environment.
Safety Lifestyle at Home and Other Places
It’s hard to build a healthy safety culture at the workplace if this mindset doesn’t extend to other parts of workers’ lives, especially the home. When you prioritize best practices at work, employees spread a culture of safety to their families and households. Dangerous conditions at home have impacts on the people in your business and your operations. Consider these safety talk ideas for topics outside of the field or office:
- Automotive safety (personal vehicles)
- Back to school
- Bees, hornets, wasps, and other insects
- Carbon monoxide safety and awareness
- Cell phone usage
- Daylight savings time and daylight standard time
- Distracted driving
- Fire safety at home
- Garden equipment safety (e.g., lawn mowers, edgers, and hedge clippers)
- GFCI-protected outlets
- Home security
- Substance abuse
- Weather (e.g., tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding, and other natural disasters)
Safety isn’t something that ceases to be a concern when a worker clocks out for the day. Safe practices at home, on commutes, and in other aspects of life help keep your staff healthy and happy. Employees that live in safe households tend to be more productive. When safety becomes a way of life, it results in tangible benefits for your company, such as a reputation for a positive and productive environment.
Creative Approaches to Safety
Humor and creativity are two of the most effective ways to connect to people. When information is presented in a humorous way or with a method that inspires creativity, your listeners are more likely to internalize safe practices and offer feedback.
- Safety games
- Slogans, jingles, mottos, or catchphrases related to safety
- Hilarious videos of dramatized unsafe behavior
- Safety memes
- Banners and artwork
- Campaigns with incentives (e.g., door prizes, gift cards, and monetary awards, where appropriate)
- Competitions within groups for best ideas to improve safety
- Innovative tools and techniques
Talking about safety shouldn’t feel like a chore or a box to check off on a list. It can be a fun and fulfilling part of the work for participants at every level.
Putting Together a Toolbox Talk
The most effective toolbox talks are quick and to the point. You want your listeners to engage with the information being shared. Some tips for creating a toolbox talk include the following:
- Enumerate and summarize the most important points.
- Keep each point clear and concise. Fluff can obscure what you’re trying to say, rendering the talk less effective.
- Brevity is important. Additional information and follow-up can be reserved for another time.
- Make sure you’re working with the latest information and accepted knowledge of a subject. Safety information should be trustworthy.
- Limit a toolbox talk to one topic. Too many topics may overwhelm your employees.
- Prioritize topics that are most relevant to the work or staff. This may include subjects that are especially significant to your team, which may not always be work-related.
- Keep things interesting by using a diverse range of topics.
- Although safety is a serious topic, humor is a great way to grab people’s attention and encourage engagement, where appropriate.
- Be mindful of the limitations of in-person talks and virtual meetings when presenting info and data.
Finding Topics for Discussion
If you leave the sourcing of topics up to a manager or supervisor, it’s going to be challenging to have good toolbox talks with meaningful, high-quality conversations. Your organization should include a process for collecting topics and vetting them for appropriateness. The internet is a good source for finding toolbox talk topics. By searching for “safety talk ideas” or “safety toolbox topics,” you can find results from OSHA, Safety Culture, and EHS Safety News America, among others. What you see online may help form ideas for other topics or ones that can be tweaked for operational relevance.
Building a Toolbox Talk Template
As a construction leader, you understand the need for uniformity, consistency, and quality. Creating a toolbox talk from scratch each time can become unwieldy and difficult, especially for projects and assignments that have long durations. As an organization, you can create a template to capture essential details related to your internal processes and policies. A template takes the pressure off a safety officer, project manager, superintendent, or team lead to maintain consistency and quality across forms.
Having a template makes it easier to distribute and share documentation across functional groups. Templates also lend themselves to strong record keeping, which is critical for construction projects. You may need to show documentation of topics to an insurance provider for preferred rates. This documentation may also prove valuable in the event of a claim or lawsuit filed against your company or organization. Furthermore, changing regulations may require you to provide proof of safety management initiatives.
The key elements of a toolbox talk template should include at a minimum:
- Official company identification, including name, logos, location, and contact info
- Name and contact information for the person conducting the toolbox meeting
- Date toolbox talk was conducted
- Toolbox ID, an alphanumeric field, that uniquely identifies the particular talk within a time period such as a fiscal year or project duration
- Project name, if applicable, or functional work group
- Topic or subject of discussion
- Brief agenda outlining the segments of the discussion or a summary capturing the main issues, feedback, and other critical observations
- Photos of the meeting
- Record of attendance
- Electronic signatures of participants
- Remarks or general comments, useful for auditing purposes or monitoring alignment with overall safety objectives
- Electronic approval signatures of managers, supervisors, or officers
Scheduling a Toolbox Talk
Discussions on construction safety talk topics are often held in the field, either on the site or at a project field office. Including office staff or employees working remotely usually requires a virtual meeting environment or a conference call. There are usually no hard rules on the location or manner of a talk if they’re appropriate to the site and safe. It’s important that attendees can clearly hear what’s being shared. You should also be able to make a record of participants. An onsite meeting is probably not advisable if there are ongoing activities that are noisy and pose a threat. Similarly, a talk that requires attendees to go out of their way to participate may not be effective.
For projects that involve multiple on-site crews and personnel from other companies or organizations, it may also be advantageous to have a cloud-based, electronic means of communication and distribution of toolbox talks. Past talks should be stored for retrieval by staff for future use.
Using Fluix for Safety Management
Fluix is a code-free software for safety management that has several applications in the construction industry. It is a powerful, yet flexible platform that can be scaled up and down to meet your organizational needs. When it comes to communicating 100 safety topics for daily toolbox talk, Fluix offers several features that give your company a distinct advantage:
- Workflow automation: Automate routine tasks for improved efficiency.
- TaskStream: Develop and implement a roadmap for your processes that include tasks, checklists, deadlines, and triggers for specific actions.
- E-Sign: Collect electronic signatures for your documents, irrespective of where personnel is located.
- Form Filling: Complete forms required in operations, including reports, invoices, contracts, and time tracking, among others.
- Form Builder: Create new templates or digitize paper-based documents for immediate implementation into your workflows.
- Data Reporting: Collect data for analysis to gain insights on your processes and workflows.
- Integrations: Extract data for integration into other applications such as databases, file management systems, and project management programs.
With documented use cases in field inspections, auditing, collaboration, training management, digital document management, and safety management, Fluix stands as a powerful tool for transforming your methods for handling construction safety talk topics.
This platform is especially mobile-friendly and compatible with laptops, tablets, and smartphones, all of which are essential tools in construction and field operations. You don’t need a special operating system or special coding knowledge to boost your safety programs.
