National Forklift Safety Day is June 14 2022
National Forklift Safety Day is sponsored by the Industrial Truck Association. On this day manufacturers call attention to the dangers of forklift operation and seek to educate customers, the public, and government officials about safe forklift operation. There are over 540,000 industrial truck operators employed in the United States. Keeping them operating safely benefits every link in the supply chain.
Here are 10 ways that you can bring forklift safety awareness to your employees
1) Have a Special Safety Meeting
If you don’t have regular safety meetings, use this as an opportunity to have one.
If you do have regular safety meetings, do something different to make this one special. The more significant you can make the meeting, the more importance your staff will place on forklift safety. Ideas to accomplish this include involving additional people or combining teams. Invite high-level executives that rarely participate in regular safety meetings. Have multiple shifts attend a meeting together so people will look forward to seeing team members from other shifts.
2) Create a Contest or Quiz
Have a competition that tests safety knowledge. You could do something small, like a paper quiz in the break room, or something large, like a pretend game show. Have a worthwhile prize, and try to get as many people involved as possible.
We created a National Forklift Safety Day Quiz that you can use at your facility. We also have this National Forklift Safety Day Word Search.
3) Celebrate Success
Have you had no safety issues since last year? Is there someone on the team who has done a great job? Is there a particular example of good safety practices that is coming to mind?
Celebrate their success with a shared story, award, or reward. Embrace the culture of safety you’re creating.
4) Start a New Safety Practice
Let’s admit it, a lot of times safety is about doing routine small things correctly, and it’s not always the most exciting thing to talk about. Sometimes it’s hard to introduce new safety procedures because it’s hard to capture your team’s interest. National Forklift Safety Day gives you a reason to launch an initiative one a day when you have your team’s interest. Combine it with some of the other ideas on this list, and your new safety practice will have momentum on its first day.
5) Hand Out Special Apparel or Equipment
Get a unique “National Forklift Safety Day 2022” shirt made. Use this opportunity as a chance to distribute new safety vests, glasses, etc. Every time your team wears/uses these items they’ll be reminded of forklift safety.
6) Renew Training
Use this day as a chance to review some safety training. If you do this annually, it will be easy to keep track of infrequent training requirements and standards. Make sure your organization’s standards are being met. Review procedures like your pre-shift checklist. With an ever-changing workforce, this is a great chance to make sure everyone is on the same page.
7) Make some Posters
Safety Posters are some of the most common tools of the trade. New safety posters will break up the routine and call attention to safety topics. You can even create custom posters for your specific work environments. Create one for every day of the week surrounding National Forklift Safety Day. They can be completely customized and highly engaging. You can even tie them into a contest from #2.
8) Do Something Fun
Some of our business partners have forklift operating competitions every National Forklift Safety Day. Their employees look forward to this event all year. Many companies who invest in these types of competitions have been able to embed forklift safety into their company culture. Take the time to plan something unique. If you create a fun forklift safety event that fits into your company culture, you will solidify the idea and create true buy-in from your team.
9) Involve Company Communications
Get National Forklift Safety Day and all the activities you’ve planned featured in your internal company newsletter and communications. You have 2 weeks to get ready, so don’t delay. Take some pictures of things that happen that day so you can share them with team members that may not have been able to participate in every activity.
10) Free Food
This one is a given. People like free food. Add some free food to the previously mentioned ideas, and your event will be a hit with hungry employees.