How to write safety policies that employees will actually read, understand and follow

Why do some employees ignore health and safety policies?

Employees at all levels of an organisation share responsibility for good health and safety practices. While most do follow safety policies, a 2023 survey found that not all employees are on the same page when it comes to workplace safety. Research found that nearly 40% of employees think safety rules are unnecessary, while over a quarter admitted to being unaware of the rules altogether. While some of this might be down to individual attitudes, there is a significant role that workplace safety leaders can play in improving their teams’ engagement. This starts with ensuring that your safety policies are accessible to everyone who uses them.

Here are some common reasons why employees might ignore safety rules and regulations at work.

Health and safety policies are too longWhile reading and understanding safety policies is important, your teams also have a job to do. Time is an increasingly precious resource for many companies, so some employees may feel that they just don’t have the capacity to spend a few hours poring over a lengthy, complicated handbook.

Health and safety policies are full of jargonEven if your policies are shorter than War and Peace, employees might find them challenging to understand if they are too jargon-heavy. If instructions are hard to follow or the language is unnecessarily complex, employees could be put off trying to decipher them.

Health and safety policies are not role-specificWhile many safety policies can be applied across a workplace, some employees will need to know specific procedures that relate directly to their responsibilities. If they can’t quickly and easily find the information specific to their role, they might miss out on key information or instructions.

Health and safety policies are hard to findAccessibility is an integral part of employee engagement. If teams don’t know where to find information, or if policies are buried deep in the small print of a one hundred-page handbook, their ability to carry out the correct procedures is compromised. When documents are stored online with document management software, employees can find what they need quickly and easily without the need for messy paper filing or manual record-keeping.

How to make your safety policies more engaging for employees

Now that we know why employees might not be engaging with your safety policies, here are some steps you can take to turn that around, along with the digital tools that can streamline your safety policies and procedures.

Write like a humanYour safety policies should be easy to read and digest so that employees can take action in good time. Overloading them with information or unnecessary jargon will only slow things down or risk key processes being overlooked. Keep your policies short and to the point, so that your teams can quickly grasp what they need to know.

Tip: Write in the third person and use bulleted lists for steps and procedures to improve scan-ability.

Make documents accessibleIf you’ve yet to switch to digital document management, consider how technology can support your teams to organise, access and digest key safety information. With systems like Notify’s document management software, you can keep all your safety documents, including your Risk Assessments and RAMS, in one place. This removes the need for a manual filing system, it helps you ensure version control (giving employees confidence that they are using live versions) and it enables you to link out to different records. This is particularly important if you reference other procedures in your policies.  Ultimately, digitising your safety polices helps your workforce find the information they need when they need it.

Ensure policies are job-or site-specificIf employees don’t think a policy is relevant to their role or the site they work on, they will be less likely to engage with it. Ensure that your policies set out who needs to be involved in specific procedures and that this information is up to date. When you are creating these policies, it is also worth involving others, as it is more likely to reflect the true nature of your business activities if those on the front line are inputting into it. Getting input, as well as feedback on your policies will lead to more effective documentation.

Make use of the data you haveWhen employees can see why safety policies are important, they will be more likely to read and follow them. An organisation with robust safety management will have a plethora of safety data to highlight the difference that following policies can make. For example, during staff training, you might use data from incident reports to show how a near miss could have been avoided if a policy was followed. Ensuring the relevant people have access to this data will also improve engagement, empowering employees to spot trends and mitigate hazards before they become a real danger.

Reinforce through regular training and remindersWe know that workplace health and safety is not a one-and-done exercise. Reinforcing policies and procedures through regular staff training serves to refresh and update your team’s knowledge. It also demonstrates your ongoing commitment to their safety and compliance within your sector. Notify’s document management and risk assessment modules can also support this, thanks to features like our ‘read and sign’ functionality, where safety leaders can be assured that policies and other safety documents have been read and understood by the relevant people. This encourages transparency and accountability, furthering your case for compliance and providing key information for inspections and audits.

Go beyond the document to make it engaging

Enhance employee engagement by supporting your written policy with:

• Visual aids like infographics and safety charts

• Short explainer videos or animations

• Interactive safety training modules

• On-site signage and QR codes for real-time access

Different formats help cater to diverse learning styles.

Informed and engaged employees play a pivotal role in any workplace health and safety culture. By creating clear, specific and easy-to-access policies, safety leaders can help their teams better understand how to keep themselves and others safe at work. Digital technology can provide organisations with the tools they need to make this happen, so get in touch today and see how Notify can help you create safety policies that employees will actually read, understand and follow.