Department of Consumer and Employment Protection © 2005 Resources Safety 1 Please read this before using presentation This presentation is extracted from content presented at the 2005 Mines Safety Roadshow held in October 2005 It is made available for non-commercial use (eg toolbox meetings) subject to the condition that the PowerPoint file is not altered without permission from Resources Safety Supporting resources, such as brochures and posters, are available from Resources Safety For resources, information or clarification, please contact: or visit

Toolbox presentation: Communication strategies October 2005

Department of Consumer and Employment Protection © 2005 Resources Safety 3 What is a communication strategy? A set of rules Agreed document An understanding A method of improvement Dispute resolution point

Department of Consumer and Employment Protection © 2005 Resources Safety 4 Types of communication Verbal talking to each other Documented letters, s minutes of meetings instruction books etc. Directives must-do processes and procedures

Department of Consumer and Employment Protection © 2005 Resources Safety 5 Communication line Manager Supervisors Safety and health representatives Employees and in reverse order

Department of Consumer and Employment Protection © 2005 Resources Safety 6 Verbal Talking directly to the person (supervisor, employee, manager) No true record kept of discussions When passed up or down the management line, information can become distorted Emotions can distort discussions Becomes informal and can be ignored

Department of Consumer and Employment Protection © 2005 Resources Safety 7 Documented Provides written evidence of requests and discussions Can be given timeframe and person for action Legislation requires management to answer on how it will deal with the issue Stays on minutes until actioned

Department of Consumer and Employment Protection © 2005 Resources Safety 8 Directives Procedure that must be followed Are the safest at the time of issue May be updated as required

Department of Consumer and Employment Protection © 2005 Resources Safety 9 Meetings Tool box meetings Safety and health committee meetings Impromptu meetings Pre-job special task meetings Post-job special task meetings Monthly business meetings

Department of Consumer and Employment Protection © 2005 Resources Safety 10 Documented minutes Minutes allow: all items discussed to be documented an item to have a person identified as responsible for the action to be taken an item to have an action timeframe an item to stay on the minutes until addressed

Department of Consumer and Employment Protection © 2005 Resources Safety 11 What can assist you? Training Management commitment Safety and health representatives Safety and health committee Meetings

Department of Consumer and Employment Protection © 2005 Resources Safety 12 Training Request training when deficiencies are recognised Training is not just formal SHR training Training is not just for SHRs Training may include: negotiation skills minute taking report writing investigation skills

Department of Consumer and Employment Protection © 2005 Resources Safety 13 What’s in a good communications strategy? An introduction – where and to whom does it apply? Reason for the strategy Objective of the strategy Methods of communication Timelines for introduction Evaluation and review program Commitment

Department of Consumer and Employment Protection © 2005 Resources Safety 14 A strategy at your workplace Ask: do we need it? what will it do? when can we get it? where can we get it? will we need training? Where can we get examples? Go onto the internet and type “communication strategy” and “workplace” into your search engine – there’s lots of publicly available information that can be used as a starting point