As a safety speaker who started his career in a manufacturing environment, I have been around a lot of holiday parties. The parties have changed over time, and that’s a good thing; no company wants to serve alcohol at a company party and then have some fool get in a car and drive home. Most company parties are not all that memorable however, after giving a talk on safety...
Speaking to groups across the country as a stress and safety speaker, I realize that among the many effects of the COVID pandemic, was the amount of stress ratcheted up on workers in construction, manufacturing and transportation. The problem with stress is that it diverts awareness. That fact may not mean much in an accounting office or insurance agency, but to a person driving a forklift in a busy...
If Workplace Safety is a Negotiation, Why Aren’t We Talking More? As a manufacturing safety speaker, I stress that manufacturing safety is an ongoing negotiation. As a safety keynote speaker, I am passionately committed to doing everything I can to talk more on the importance of safety, encourage more safety conversations and to teach workers and supervisors to spotlight safety negotiation as their highest priority. “Letters from CEOs” As...
A Safety Silo is not a Disney Ride One of the highest purposes of my life is to be a motivational safety speaker. Speaking on safety is personal to me, because of the early years of my career. Long before I went into sales and became a keynote speaker, I worked in factories and steel mills. I saw far too many injuries that could have been avoided. “If you...
Is Your Circle of Safety too Small? As a workplace safety keynote speaker, I often share with my audiences that I did not “come up” in industry in the typical manner. I like to speak on safety because I worked in steel mills, construction and manufacturing. In fact, not long ago, I was introduced to a manufacturing group by the CEO who called me “the working guy’s best friend.”...
Don’t Take This Personally, Take This Very Personally My decision to work as a safety meeting speaker didn’t start because I was reading a book on safety one day. My role as a safety meeting speaker started many years ago when one of my buddies on the job was badly injured. In fact, he could have lost his life. My first jobs weren’t in a stuffy office but in...
How Many Days Has It Been for You? My work as a Workplace Safety Speaker has taken me to many manufacturing, trucking and construction companies. Recently, the president of a company invited me to see the operation before I delivered a safety speech. Before I ever thought about becoming a keynote speaker on safety, I worked in construction, manufacturing, and transportation, so it always feels good to “come back...
My passion as a workplace safety speaker has led me all across America to deliver keynote addresses and break-out training sessions as a keynote speaker and breakout speaker on safety to construction companies, food processing, pharmaceutical companies, manufacturing, trucking companies and similar organizations. I have seen the results of what happens when safety is ignored. As a workplace safety speaker, I frequently like to ask the question you see...
It’s Not About the PPE, It’s About the People As a virtual safety speaker and in-person safety speaker, I stress that safety is never about wall posters or personal protective equipment, it’s about the people. In fact, safety is a negotiation. People, Not Posters When I speak on safety, either virtually or face-to-face, I like to lead audiences through an exercise. I have them create a picture in their...
If Safety is #1, What Comes Next? In my talks as a Negotiating Safety Motivational Speaker, I often ask my audiences the following question: “So if safety is number one, what comes next?” The question is often met with blank stares, shrugs and sometimes humor, with answers including “Lunch,” “Going home,” or “Winning the lottery!” What Does Come Next? Truth is, I would argue that negotiating safety is the...
As a motivational speaker for safety and construction, I often start my safety keynote talks with the simple but important question of “What’s in Your Safety Gangbox?” It catches a lot of people off-guard, but it may be the most important question of all. From 2017 to 2018, OSHA reported that one out of every five workplace fatalities were in construction. In that period, almost 1,000 construction workers lost...
In my work as a motivational safety speaker and communication speaker, I know that everything contributes to safety. The safety negotiation as I call it demands that safety and communication go hand-in-hand. However, safety communication is an art as well as a skill. It must be practiced in every meeting and situation. Not long ago, I witnessed an interaction in a company that illustrates the good, bad and ugly...
As a motivational safety speaker who speaks about hazardous and non-hazardous work environments, I always get strange looks when I say the factory floor is usually safer than the marketing department. In fact, and most safety speakers won’t tell you this, we’re usually safer working in warehouses, construction sites, mixing huge batches or wiring an office building than we are in our own basements. Statistics Don’t Lie My motivational...
Why is being a safety motivational speaker so important to me? Earlier in my career, long before I was an executive and dressed in suits, I worked in production on the factory floor. I saw first-hand what happened to workers who took safety for granted. I am passionate about being a national safety speaker on safety topics and challenging organizations to reduce workplace injuries. More Aware, but Not Enough...
Too Many Signs, Not Enough Communication We should all know that communication skills are vital to safety. In fact, improving safety communications is a frequent topic in my safety keynote addresses and safety breakout sessions given by a breakout speaker. When there is a breakdown in communicating safety, people die or get injured. While employees understand the importance of safety, they often don’t get the message. At the end...
I often stress the importance of Negotiation Skills in my Safety Motivational keynote addresses. Why? Because emphasizing safety to transportation, manufacturing, food processing or refinery personnel is a continuous negotiation. Organizations understand the need for safety training, but to many employees it is just another boring meeting where they have to force themselves to stay awake. They walk into those meetings complacent, and they leave the same way. Why...
Is Workplace Safety an Ethical Duty? Most people might agree with the commonly used definition of workplace safety as “keeping yourself and others free from harm or danger.” It is an “adequate” statement, but as a former factory worker myself in addition to a workplace safety keynote speaker, I know that for those who work in factories, construction, transportation and other potentially dangerous jobs, safety is often seen in...
Safety Speaker “I’ve got your back, even if you don’t like it!” Data recorded by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for 2017 showed the number of claims for serious back injuries to be 148,780. In addition, there were 311,330 claims for muscle tears and strains injuries. In studies of workplace-related injuries, overexertion from improper lifting and moving of objects accounts for more than 25% of all workplace injuries. In...
Safety Speaker How a Safety Speaker can benefit your Organization. Ensuring the safety of the employees, as well as the premises, is one of the primary components of running a successful organization. It is not merely about wearing the right safety gear and operating machinery as per the safety guidelines. In fact, it is much more than simply adhering to the safety best practices. Creating a safe work environment...
Why hire Safety Speaker Mike Hourigan? As a Safety Speaker, Workplace Safety is a concern whether employees require tactical gear or a desk and computer. And ensuring that workplaces are kept safe isn’t limited solely to regulations for uniforms and equipment in more physical jobs. Safety Speaker Mike says that there are so many other aspects of workplace safety such as A Safety Speaker can improve employee communications and encouraging...