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COATINGSPRO NOVEMBER 2017 25 major area of risk, too. Give it a try. Include a relevant story about a time you or someone you know was hurt at home. Or ask how a safety practice, such as wearing personal protective equipment (PPE), might apply when doing work around the house. You could even outline a few safe driving tips that you gave to your teenager when he or she first got behind the wheel. Mentioning good driving behavior in any context will raise awareness among your workers. Motivation starts at home. Every adult thinks he or she is safe enough already. But ask these adults about their family — their kids in particular — and they' ll say there's no such thing as "safe enough." Workers will participate more if they understand that safety skills can be taught to their kids…once the workers learn them first. 10. Be Positive Too many toolbox talks feel like a chore. At best they can be boring, and at worst they can come across as scolding workers. W ho wants to pay attention to that? It can be hard to stay positive when you're frustrated by poor safety performance. But avoiding negativ- ity w ill make a huge difference in how your talks are received. T here's no simple trick or tidbit of advice for this one. Instead, it requires a change in how you perceive injuries and incidents. Nobody tries to get hurt. Ever ybody wants to go home healthy and injur y-free. But we all have a different level of personal awareness and safety skills. People have different learning abilities, too — not ever y- one is able to internalize and retain a safety lesson in the same way. Getting mad at workers won't change their behavior in the future because they hadn't set out to get hurt in the first place. You can't scare or intimidate anyone into being safer. A positive, encouraging approach to toolbox talks can foster stronger safety skills, better awareness, and more engagement with the company's safety culture. ere's no easy road to positivity. It starts one interaction at a time. It can be challenging to achieve and maintain a positive attitude in the face of workplace incidents, but the benefits are worth it. If you don't look forward to toolbox talks, then nobody else will either. Stay as positive and upbeat as possible, and focus on preventing future injuries rather than scolding workers for past incidents. If you care, so will they. Keep Improving! A good toolbox talk can lead to safer behavior, fewer broken rules, and more attention paid to human factors that increase the risk of injury. But even the best toolbox talk can only remind workers of things they already know. You would never try to teach someone how to use a forklift in a 10-minute toolbox talk, and you shouldn't limit your discus- sion of human factors to brief safety meetings either. Never stop improving your talks. Keep an eye out for new material, new ideas, and new things. T here are tons of tweaks you can make — and the better you get, the safer your employ- ees w ill be. Want to see the other 5 toolbox talk tips? Check out www.coatingspro- mag.com. Here's to delivering your best toolbox talk yet! CP Andrew Faulkner is t he communicat ions and content manager at SafeStar t. He produces safet y and t ra ining resources for safet y profes- siona ls, inc lud ing g u ides on PPE compl iance and prevent ing sl ips, t r ips, and fa l ls in t he work place, and he w r ites about t he intersect ion of t rad i- t iona l safet y compl iance measures and human factors. For more infor mat ion, contact: SafeStar t, w w w.safestar t.com Editor's note: e original version of this article appeared online at www.safestart.com. Coating Thickness Material Analysis Microhardness Material Testing