I have no studies to suggest, however, I have thrown away lots of swag.
It depends on the emphasis of your talk, the size of the audience, and your budget - however, I would think that it would be far more effective to drive home the importance of some key issue in your talk through the swag.
For instance, doing some sort of fitting of common PPE could be really useful. As an example, we talk a lot about the importance of eye protection AND how important it is to fit properly. Yet, in practice, we often simply wear the eye protection we are given whether it is well-fitted or not. Additionally, many people don’t actually experiment with adjusting the fit of their eye protection. And, in some cases, they even problem solve in weird ways that end up making the PPE ineffective. It would be great if you had a variety of different types and styles of eye protection that individuals can put on and “have fitted” to them properly by someone knowledgable on the subject (i.e. you and perhaps some other folks you could pull in for the exercise). If they find a really great fit, you could provide them with the supplier name and ID - or if you have the budget for it, order them for the individual (or if you already have a bunch, give them a pair).
I would imagine the same types of exercises could be done with different types of glove protection.
I believe there is some research evidence (or just lots and lots of stories out there?) that suggest that PPE compliance is higher when folks have PPE that is comfortable and well-fitting. Although, since you are talking about a safety program, perhaps this stuff is already covered in a way that it seldom is in STEM.
Best,
Jessica A. Martin, Ph.D.
NSF Graduate Research Fellow (2018-2021)
Joint Safety Team, Founding Member (2018-2021)
Pinkhassik Group, Department of Chemistry (2016-2021)
University of Connecticut
323-327-3974
The Workshop ACS CHAS Empowering Academic Researchers to Strengthen Safety Culture is being held next on
March 5, 2023!
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*Message sent from a system outside of UConn.*
I’m giving a presentation next week to Keene’s State upper class course on safety training.
One question that I’d like to address during the presentation is whether "safety training swag" has value. Over the years, programs I have been involved in have given away a variety of things for people to take with them after training, including:
- paper handouts of the presentation
- paper summaries of the key points of the content
- certificates of training
- lab gloves
- magnets with pithy sayings and/or key phone numbers to place on lab equipment
- opportunities to win gift certificates for food at the campus facilities
- EHS branded trinkets
Beyond food at the event itself, none of these seem to have much impact on the audience, either at the time or over the longer period. I wonder if anyone knows of any studies that have assessed the value of this practice?
Thanks for any help with this.
- Ralph
Ralph Stuart, CIH, CCHO
Environmental Safety Manager
Keene State College
603 358-2859
ralph.stuart**At_Symbol_Here**keene.edu---
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