No Job should take away a worker's life. Yet, every day nearly one million people get hurt at work. It impacts workplace culture, morale, and stress levels.
OSHA requires regular safety training. Over time the same safety messages get overlooked, so you need to plan something special. Hiring safety keynote speakers can make your event more meaningful and impactful.
You want your safety day to be a success and your safety speaker to be memorable.
Not everyone has what it takes to become a safety speaker. If you choose the right keynote speaker, your event will be a success. If you select an incompetent one, your event will suffer.
Although many people claim to be professional keynote safety speakers, only a few have the right message. And the task of hiring one can quickly become tedious and overwhelming. There are several kinds of safety speakers out there offering similar services and promising different results.
A good safety speaker can make a lasting impression on your employees and inspire them to take safety and personal well-being seriously. Safety speakers ultimately improving employee performance and help cultivate a healthy workplace culture.
The safety and well-being of your teams are a top priority. After all, your organization is only as good as your employees. As a manager, the decision to hire a safety speaker can quickly become burdensome if you don't know where to start.
In this article, we'll go over some key steps you can follow to make the process easier and land yourself a safety speaker who provides your employees with valuable insight. Inspire your team to better take care of themselves.
Steps to Hire a Safety Speaker
Know your budget
With the wide variety of safety motivational speakers, there's a diverse set of prices they charge in return for their services. First things first, you need to identify your budget. How much are you willing to spend? Do a cost-benefit analysis. What are you ready to invest in giving your employee's an opportunity to learn how safety culture can be achieved.
Invest in educating your people on how safe-decisions, in turn, can impact your organization. Remember, in the long run, investing in your employees is equivalent to investing in your organizational growth.
Safety speakers usually charge according to the total time of each session. The time can be anywhere between 45 mins to a full-day workshop, depending on your budget and the safety speaker you hire. Usually, keeping the session short is a good idea because employees stay engaged and don't get distracted from the core message. The charges may vary from speaker to speaker, so the only limit is your budget. Big companies and large corporations spend anywhere between $5,000 to $12,000.
Keynote speakers also charge more for travel. If you can find a local keynote speaker, this may help in negotiating.
Research Your Options
The idea of research might sound off-putting, but it can save you a lot of hassle later on. Before you decide on a safety speaker, be sure to research your options and dig deep on the web. You'll quickly find several qualified safety speakers and also be able to see their work samples, i.e., past demos and videos. You may also browse some of their safety articles to see their level of experience.
Keynote Speaker videos provide you with a good idea of the style and substance they have. Alternatively, you can ask around amongst your colleagues or friends, whether they know of any good safety speakers that you could hire.
It helps to know what result you want upfront. Should the keynote speaker be an industry expert, an inspirational speaker, a funny safety keynote speaker? Do you want a message of hope, or do you want someone who has had an injury tell their story?
You can motivate through fear or hope. Sharing with people startling, even scary statistics, can raise awareness. Positive reinforcement and motivation is the way to keep the message alive.
Watch Past Demos and Videos
For any great speaker, there will be enough content online demonstrating their motivational speeches. Watching a motivational speaker's demo video will exhibit their skills in action so you can analyze their capabilities. Can the keynote speaker get the audience engaged, charged, and compel them to take action?
After going through the keynote speakers' demo videos, make sure you short-list your favorites. Make a list of all potential speakers keeping the one, you feel best on top and numbering the rest priority-wise.
Social Media Presence
Check up on a safety speaker's social media presence. That isn't to say that they need to have a ton of followers to qualify as professionals, but having a strong online presence in the niche that they are in can show their level of commitment, passion, and their willingness to work with dedication in their field. Be sure to skim through their social media accounts and check out their website for more information.
You can check LinkedIn discussions on safety speakers, ask for recommendations, and start a discussion thread.
Ask Others for Advice
Don't underestimate the insight of your colleagues. Existing reviews can provide you information on all the potential safety speakers you're thinking of hiring.
Social media can be deceiving at times; you can't always judge a person through the online content they post on their websites and pages. So, to get a better idea of your short-listed candidates' live speaking skills, personality, and ability to influence, it's best to ask someone who has experienced their session live. Gather personal experience reviews to make your selection easier. People may have varying opinions, but for a good safety speaker, majority reviews will be positive.
You can even do an online google survey, asking which out of your chosen speaker, is the best in the opinion of those who have experienced live sessions with the candidates. Share the survey form on your social media accounts and run it through your contacts to receive a fair amount of responses. This will make it easier for you to shorten your list of potential keynote speakers, and bring you closer to your goal: finding the best safety speaker.
Speak to Them in Person
Organize a call with a keynote speaker. Share with them your goals, challenges, and expectations for a safety speaker. Ask them about their last safety speech, so you know how often they speak to safety audiences ( and is their content up to date). Ask them their perspective on safety and some of their keynote safety speeches content points. Some safety speakers will have more than one safety speech, so determine which works best for your teams.
It's even better if you speak to the keynote speakers in person. You can assess their persuasive skills by directly conversing with them. Ask them about their life, motivation as well as their experience with previous teams and organizations. Once you've personally spoken to the safety speakers, you can self-evaluate and make a final decision.
Negotiate your Budget
You know your budget; now you need to convince the speaker to agree to it. If they don't, you can always go with another short-listed candidate on your list. Once you have a list of the top speakers, all you have to do is find the one willing to work within your budget and have the skills you need. Most safety speakers are pretty flexible in terms of negotiations, so don't be hesitant to discuss budget with them upfront, before you commit.
Before & After the Event
You can't expect someone to meet your expectations unless you explicitly make t clear. Similarly, when you choose a safety keynote speaker, you need to discuss your expectations. Make sure your keynote speaker makes notes and directs their content towards a particular message they want to provide to the audience.
For instance, if you're looking for a safety keynote speaker to motivate your employees towards specific safe decisions around the workplace, you should communicate this goal clearly with the speaker. The safety speaker can then ensure that the content they deliver during the session caters to this goal. Remember, clarity is critical. Whether you're communicating about the budget or discussing your end goals for the meeting, be clear and direct.
Once the session is over, make sure you conduct an evaluation afterward to understand better how the meeting impacts your employees. When you're investing, you should have a clear idea of how to measure its results. Therefore, after you've successfully arranged a safety session, be sure to ask employees for their feedback on whether or not the meeting was helpful for them.
To make this evaluation phase more streamlined, you can either hold a survey or use Google Forums to get feedback from your team. Moreover, you can also hold a meeting with them and directly ask them whether the session was helpful. Most employees will be able to provide insight as to whether the content was useful, memorable, and easily understandable.
The quality of service and the style of content delivery will vary from speaker to speaker. Even then, some safety speakers might be better received by some employees and shrugged off by others. So, it comes down to how the majority feels about the session. Once you have your feedback, you can change your approach or alter it to meet the needs of your employees better.
Final Thoughts
"The power of words is immense. A well-chosen word has often sufficed to stop a flying army, to change defeat into victory, and to save an empire." – Emile de Girardin
The talent of safety speakers lies within their choice of words and tone of expression. It's essential to find a health and safety speaker that's proficient at choosing the right words and delivering those words in an engaging and influencing way. Ultimately, hiring a good safety speaker can inspire your employees to embrace workplace safety, manage stress, prevent burnout and stay productive and healthy in the workplace, ensuring maximum performance output for your organization in the long run.