S13ep3: New Hires, Contractors and Visitors

Discover the essential strategies for onboarding new hires, contractors, and visitors with SafeStart. Learn why timing is crucial in introducing SafeStart concepts.

You can't afford to miss this game-changer in easing new hires into the safety methodology.

Host: Tim Page-Bottorff
Guest: Amy Hutchinson

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1032442/episodes/9672362-s6ep10-the-safestart-client-portal?t=0

Transcript

Tim Page-Bottorff: 0:07

Hey, welcome back to Safe Talk with Safetart. If it's your first time joining us, a special welcome to you. I'm your host, Tim Page-Boddorf, and today I want to talk about new hires and contractors and introducing them to Safestart. I thought it would be best to reach out to a true expert on the subject. Senior salesperson, Amy Hutchinson. Amy, welcome to the podcast.

Amy Hutchinson: 0:34

Thanks for the invitation. I'm excited to be with you and I know my clients find SafeTalk with Safetart a valuable resource, weekly, sometimes daily. When a customer has a challenge, I check to see if you and Danny have already covered it. Whatever it is.

Tim Page-Bottorff: 0:47

You know that's very kind of you to say. It has been very special to us for the last two years and I'm going to just say it when we started this, we had a vision of building a kind of a repository or maybe a collective of SafeStart experiences to share with our customers, so sort of a kind of you don't have to reinvent the wheel thing and I'm using air quotes for those of you that can't see me and in those two years we have produced over a hundred episodes and I say, judging by the number of downloads we're getting, I truly believe we're hitting the mark. And so today I've asked Amy to join us because she's been selling Savetart for almost 20 years and we've kind of started together, I feel like, and we've had a great, strong partnership. But what most outsiders don't get is that our account executives they're kind of challenge solvers and Amy is among the best there is when it comes to providing solutions.

Tim Page-Bottorff: 1:47

So, my, here's the situation you got a new hire, you want to get them to work as soon as possible and you got a mountain of operational training to climb through before you turn them loose. So shortly after they get on the job and someone says to them, hey. So shortly after they get on the job and someone says to them, hey, "mind on task, and there's those air quotes again. And they take it as hey, "get your head out of your air quotes again.

Amy Hutchinson: 2:12

Now I know you don't expect me to finish that thought, but your point is very well made. There's so much they need to know before you turn them loose on the job. Safe tart training on top of all. that likely isn't doing them or the organization any good, for several reasons, including one I already touched on. Put yourself in the mind of a new employee and team member. They don't even know where the restrooms are. The other reason is and you've heard this before the head can only take in what the seat can endure. Winston Churchill had a way of getting to the point, but you still have the challenge of hey. Mind on task can be misinterpreted by someone who's new to that team.

Tim Page-Bottorff: 2:57

Yeah, that's true, and there are other reasons why you don't want to train new hires or contractors fully in SafeStart during the beginning.

Amy Hutchinson: 3:06

It really isn't the best use of your trainer's time to have just one or two people. Then new hires don't get the value of stories from several people if only a couple of people are in their unit training. As you know, Tim, the Safe Start storytelling is vital to both the person telling the story and the listeners connecting those Safe Start dots. If you will, depending on your hiring rate, I would pull your new hires until you have around 10 or so folks and, as I've heard before, most organizations have a 90-day probation period that you'll want to make certain to get through first. Look, our customers are making a huge investment in new hires and SafeStart is an investment in them as well. I recommend getting them through their site and task-required training in order to work as soon as possible. Hold off on SafeStart training until you have enough of a group to train and most certainly until they clear that probationary period.

Tim Page-Bottorff: 4:04

Yeah, that's a pretty hefty investment to make sure that your employees are keeping their "mind on task. Air quotes, again, I do say that if you get them on board, it kind of jumps into the reason why we've developed the Safe Start orientation course. So do me a favor, Amy. Why don't you just give our listeners an idea of what that course looks like?

Amy Hutchinson: 4:23

Absolutely, afe Start's orientation training is a short introductory course that can be completed in roughly 20 minutes in a classroom setting or in a self-study format. The training will introduce Safe Start ideas and terminology as soon as new employees or temporary workers arrive on site. We know at client sites, the SafeStart terminology and concepts become a common language and builds bridges for easing and improving communication. And that often helps with forging a common safety language in the workplace, establishing clear parameters and strengthening their safety culture.

Tim Page-Bottorff: 5:00

Yeah, that's great that you said that, and I'm just going to pick up something here that our listeners need to grab, because, as a collateral to building common safety language, you'll also see that you'll get true trust and engagement, which is extremely important. And so I also want to pick up on something you just said about temporary workers, and I don't think most of us even consider those kinds of things. What do you think?

Amy Hutchinson: 5:24

Oh yeah, in addition to those new hires, you may want to consider those temporary workers, contractors, and even site visitors. The purpose is to have the feeling of being included and understanding the Safe Start terminology being used at the site.

Tim Page-Bottorff: 5:41

And what would be your recommendation if those folks actually go full-time, like in terms of giving them the entire course?

Amy Hutchinson: 5:47

As I mentioned before, make certain you pool enough people to make it worth your trainer's time and then ideally as close as you can get to that 90-day probation point. I'd recommend all folks get fully trained within six months, though.

Tim Page-Bottorff: 6:00

Yeah, that's kind of the difference too between choosing or using SafeStart Classic versus SafeStart Now Do you have an opinion on both?

Amy Hutchinson: 6:09

Actually, we have the offering for orientation in both SafeStart Classic and it can actually be bought separately by the site or corporately in a three, four or five-year term for unlimited usage by new hires, contractors and site visitors. If we're looking at SafeStart Now's orientation, that's actually included in the site license fee and that's purchased by the site and then accessed through the client portal. And what I find really useful is that you have the options to use orientation in either format that includes use to a group or for use for individual study, and both can be loaded into your learning management system to help ease access and your documentation of training completed.

Tim Page-Bottorff: 7:01

That's awesome. I'll tell you what. I know that we spent some time working together. We actually did a. We took a trip eight hours one way in a car together, which was fascinating. But then we got onto this podcast and, before we hit the record button, you and I were visiting and of course, we talk a lot about a lot of things. We caught up and we did have a conversation, but you did mention something that I've never thought of, and that was maybe using the orientation process as a refresher course.

Amy Hutchinson: 7:33

Absolutely. For our legacy clients. The orientation resource is a great refresher of the Safe Start concepts and also an introduction to the new visual icons and appearance of the states, state-to-error and that pattern that shows increased risk with an increase of states and errors.

Tim Page-Bottorff: 7:55

Yeah, that pattern is pretty popular nowadays and people are seeing it. And I'll tell you what, since we're talking about patterns, is there a cost to this? Is there an additional cost?

Amy Hutchinson: 8:06

Great question. And the costs vary depending on the format of SafeStart you're using, whether it is a term for use for three, four or five years, as I'd mentioned, or a one-time license. So SafeStart Classic Orientation just so I'm not sounding vague it can be as low as $995 for three years at a site level, whereas SafeStart Now is included in the site license fee and accessed through the client portal at $29.95, with no term for use of a limited number of years. And if all of that flew by way too fast, you can simply reach out to your account executive for help.

Tim Page-Bottorff: 8:49

Which you know what I highly recommend to everybody. And you just mentioned our new client portal. I did a podcast on that with our mutual buddy, ennis Karnreich, and I'm going to stick a link in the show notes for anybody that's interested. And we're really excited about this new suite of tools, that client portal. But I'll tell you what. Amy, I wish I had more time with you, because this is the end of our podcast and I just want to say thank you for joining us.

Amy Hutchinson: 9:15

Hey, thanks for the invitation and having me, im, it's been fun.

Tim Page-Bottorff: 9:20

And to you, our listeners. I just got to ask, Amy, and if they need to get ahold of you, Amy, what's the best way to get ahold of you? Is it email, LinkedIn? What do you recommend?

Amy Hutchinson: 9:30

That is a great question. You can always call our toll-free number, 800-267-7482, and then follow the prompts. I may not be everyone's account manager, but if they know the name of their person, then they can put that in there or I'll help point them in the right direction. And I'm at extension 346.

Tim Page-Bottorff: 9:55

346, and then tell everybody what your email is to amy. h at safestartcom. For those of you military folks, that's Alpha Mike Yankee dot, that's a period dot otel at safestartcom. Anyway, thank you for our tech. Yeah, thank you for you being here late, Amy. I really do appreciate it. And to our listeners, make sure you go out, share this episode and until our paths cross again, I'm Tim page bottr for safe talk with safe start. We'll see you down the road.