BT Health and Safety
As a business with a very varied workforce and responsibility for their safety in many different situations, BT needed to ensure that its staff followed safety procedures properly. The BT health and safety policy states that there should be a risk assessment for each working practice and situation. The issue is not that undertaking and recording a risk assessment is difficult or complex but that people think it must be. On occasions this meant that the appropriate risk assessment was not done at all, putting people at unnecessary risk and making the company potentially liable for legal action following accidents.
At the same time BT faced a perception amongst office staff that health and safety really only concerned engineers working in the field. The office is seen as an inherently safe place, which of course in the main it is. But that doesn’t mean that accidents in the office never happen. For this campaign then two objectives needed to be achieved. For those involved in risk assessment the crucial importance of following correct procedures had to be drummed home, as well as reassuring them that the process was logical and easily followed. Office staff needed an effective communication which emphasised the importance of health and safety awareness, but again showing that the measures required were simple and straightforward.
Strategy
For both audiences we decided that creating a short video programme was the most effective method of communication. This gave the best opportunity for overcoming the audience preconceptions by allowing us to communicate in a direct and accessible way.
For the risk assessment message we made a short and punchy documentary about a film and TV stunt man. We showed the build-up to a stunt in which he was set on fire, following the processes by which this apparently very dangerous act was made completely safe. We were able to link these processes directly to those laid out in BT’s risk assessment policy and demonstrate that they were sensible whatever the level of risk involved in the activity.
For the office staff we created a humorous drama showing an arrogant manager flouting all the sensible precautions one should take in the office, ironically while he and his staff were tasked with coming up with an office safety policy. After a variety of absurd accidents the manager is finally convinced that all that is really required is a common-sense awareness of the risks and simple actions to reduce them.
Results
Both videos were well received by BT managers and staff alike. The Risk Assessment video won an award (details on certificate). Both were considered effective enough for BT to pay for them to made into generic safety training videos for distribution to non-BT businesses.
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Media