In this week’s show, Colin chats to fellow podcaster, and health and safety expert, Richard Collins about the ways in which new media, such as podcasts, can be used to communicate with, and engage with, workforces.

Engagement is sometimes incredibly difficult to improve. Traditional forms of communication seem to be largely ignored, so maybe it’s time to think of new, more interesting ways of talking to our workforces. Colin and Richard’s conversation will certainly inspire you to think differently.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Podcasting is proving to be a valuable means of communication for firms looking to communicate in new ways to their workforce. This solves many of the engagement issues that companies seem to have.

 

• Email blasts, newsletters, or notices on bulletin boards, are often ignored and sometimes actively avoided by staff. New forms of communication and engagement are essential steps forward for all businesses.

 

• The prospect of truly helping people is a large driving factor in Richard’s constant desire to do better, and to improve.

 

• The world of today is all about communication, and broadening our reach when it comes to networking. Both Richard and Colin have greatly increased their own knowledge by talking to people from all over the world, and from different cultures.

 

• New media presents its own challenges. We need to find new ways of telling our stories, or there’s little point utilising these unique channels and forms of communication.

 

• Dynamic advertising is a new system that allows for contemporary messages to be implanted into content that’s already been sent out into the wild, meaning that content is essentially evergreen.

 

• Smaller businesses have tighter budgets, which means that H&S solutions must be more creative. Larger businesses tend to be more standardised in their approach.

 

• Both Colin and Richard acknowledge the need to engage with a wide range of people in the business hierarchy for their podcasts. This gives a better overview of the way companies work, and the different needs of different sectors.

 

BEST MOMENTS

‘People are really interested to hear people they know, speaking’

‘Why wait for the accident?’

‘Communication os fundamental’

’There’s a reason why people weren’t opening the emails’

‘You create an environment that’s safe but challenging’

VALUABLE RESOURCES

The Interesting Health And Safety Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/training-competency-creating-effective-plan-process/id1467771449?i=1000452692837 

Safeti Podcast - https://safeti.com/series/the-safeti-environment-health-and-safety-podcast/

Safeti - https://safeti.com

ABOUT THE HOST

Colin Nottage

‘Making health and safety as important as everything else we do.’

This is the belief that Colin is passionate about and through his consultancy Influential Management Group (IMG) is able to spread into industry. Colin works at a strategic level with company owners and board members. He helps business leaders establish and achieve their health and safety ambitions.

He has developed a number of leading competency improvement programmes that are delivered across industry and his strengths are his ability to take a practical approach to problem-solving and being able to liaise at all levels within an organisation.

Colin also runs a company that vets contractors online and a network that develops and support H&S consultancies to become better businesses.

Colin chairs the Construction Dust Partnership, an industry collaboration directly involving many organisations, including the Health and Safety Executive.

He is a Post Graduate Tutor at Strathclyde University and a highly sought-after health and safety speaker and trainer. He has a Post Graduate Certificate in Safety and Risk management, an engineering degree and is a Chartered Member of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH).