Safety Speaker Tips – A Powerful Hearing Protection Illustration

Free Safety Briefing/Meeting For You To Use

As an international safety speaker, I would like to provide you the following script for a safety briefing you can use on the subject of hearing protection.

As with most safety subjects, the key to motivating an audience to take action is to give them an emotional reason to take the action you need them to take. As a safety speaker, most of the time when we talk about hearing protection we will impress upon our audience what they would give up if they lost or damaged their hearing. At the end of this discussion you may watch a very emotional video, which illustrates precious the gift of hearing. It shows reactions of people who are actually hearing for the first time. They have all received a cochlear implant and you will be watching their reaction as the technician turns on the device. It is so powerful you will find yourself and your audience fighting back tears.

What is so great is that it is an entirely different approach to conveying the importance of hearing protection. When you can convey a message in a new and different way you have a greater opportunity to be effective. A key to effectiveness as a safety speaker is the ability to change things up.

Take a moment now and watch the video. After you have experienced it I will share with you a teaching outline and script you might want to use at an upcoming safety meeting.

Suggested Script and Outline

Thanks for attending today’s safety meeting. Today we will be discussing the importance of hearing protection. As you know, there are places here at work where hearing protection is required. There are also places at home where you need to protect your hearing and the hearing of your family members.

I don’t know if it’s possible to imagine how much your life would be impacted if you suffered a hearing loss. I would like to share with you a short video that shows how valuable hearing is to someone who has never had the ability to hear.

(A few safety speaker video tips: Test first to make sure your download speed is fast enough to watch live. Click on the expand button usually in the lower right corner to make video full screen. Test your volume ahead of time. If an ad comes up there is usually an X you can click on to skip or remove the ad.)

Pretty awesome! Obviously, hearing is a very precious part of life. To make sure you can hear every sound you enjoy as long as you live, now is the time to protect your hearing.

The best protection when you are exposed to loud noises is hearing protection.

(Here would be a good place to demonstrate the different types of hearing protection you provide at your location. Also, you could tell your employees which types of hearing protection you will allow them to take home for their own personal use if any.)

Audience Interaction and Participation

Does anyone have any comments about the video?

(Call on people to get their reaction)

In addition to here on the job, there are other times in your life when hearing protection is important.

Can anyone think of activities you do at home where using hearing protection would be helpful?

(Call on people to get their answers)

Some Answers: Mowing the Lawn, Using a Leaf Blower, Snow Blower, Chain Saw, Gun Range, and the list goes on…

Basically, anything that creates a very loud noise in a short period of time or a moderately loud noise you are exposed to over a longer time period puts your hearing at risk.

You Don’t Always Get A Warning

Have you ever done a task in a noisy environment and later your ears were ringing for a while? That is a place where you needed hearing protection.

The big challenge with hearing is you won’t always be aware of the damage you are doing, so this is an area in your life it is better to take precautions rather than find out years later you have lost some or all of your hearing.

Call To Action

Protect your family and yourself. Get the  right hearing protection and always use it when appropriate.