Digital displays are powerful tools for safety engagement, and making sure they are updated regularly is the key to maximizing their potential. The best display presentations are timely and relevant to the viewer’s current circumstances. That’s why, when determining the best information to include when refreshing your monthly digital display content, it can be helpful to take inspiration from the news. Try asking yourself the question many journalists ask themselves before pitching a story: is this newsworthy?

The most important element of the information you choose to share within your facility is whether or not your people find it directly relatable. Safety topics are generally great places to start, and online resources, like our post on how to create an effective digital presentation, can help too. However, selecting the topics you want to discuss is only part of creating a relevant and effective presentation. Newsworthiness requires proximity and timeliness.

A great example of this is the weather, which is rarely included in safety presentations despite its constant presence in workers’ lives and its hazardous effects on outdoor activities. Digital display presentations are a great way to communicate the risks of upcoming weather phenomena in your area, especially in April. Play the role of safety meteorologist and you’ll have an easy time coming up with effective seasonal safety slides.

This month is commonly associated with spring, but depending on where you live, April can bring the weather of every season on any given day. Volatile weather can invite human factors into the safety conversation as distraction and delays emerge from violent winds, heavy rain, fog, storms and even snowfall. A great way to address this with your display presentation is by communicating the risks of complacency if there have been a few days of warm sunshine in a row.  We all know April can bring ice and snow a week after warm sunshine, and a visual reminder to adapt to driving conditions can keep your workers safe during their commutes.

The proximity and timeliness of weather apply to other natural phenomena that affect safety too. For example, the Tory Trauma Research Program at Sunnybrook Research Institute recently found a significant increase in traffic risk during the solar eclipse of 2017. With another total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, it’s a good idea to use a presentation like this to remind employees to be particularly careful on that specific date, especially in the 13 U.S. states located in the path of totality. Cities underneath the full darkness of the eclipse will contend with heavy traffic volumes, distracted tourists, inebriated partiers and a slew of human factors normally associated with major travel holidays like Thanksgiving. If your facility is within the eclipse’s path, try dedicating a section of your presentation to reminding workers of how taking their time and managing frustration can reduce risk in the situations they’re likely to experience when the moon blocks out the sun.

Traffic is another fixture of the news, making it extra appropriate for April, which is Distracted Driving Awareness Month. While the focus of this campaign is often the traffic on the road, this is a great opportunity to remind viewers of your internal presentation about the finer details of driving safety, like avoiding distractions in parking lots. Complacency is a major risk factor when driving and people often forget about the risks they’re subject to when behind the wheel, especially when they make the same drive day in and day out. Chief among these risks is pulling into and out of the parking lot.

People tend to think there is less risk in a parking lot than on the road. It’s not uncommon to see people on their phones or paying more attention to the instruments in their car like the radio, air conditioning/heater and GPS while driving in a parking lot. This makes parking lot safety a great topic for your digital presentations. Consider making like a traffic reporter and dedicating a few slides to remind your workforce of the benefits of backing into their parking space—that’s what we did.

Backing into parking spaces is part of SafeStart’s safety culture. We included this topic in our own monthly presentation for April as a reminder to current staff and to let new employees know what the expectation is in the parking lot. SafeStart recommends the back-in (upon arrival)/pull-forward (upon leaving) method of parking.

Backing into a space when you arrive at work—at the beginning of your shift when you’re more alert—also prepares you for your unknown state when you leave for home. You could be fatigued at the end of a busy day, you could receive an emergency phone call that will cause you to leave in a rush or you could be distracted by all of the things that you need to do once you leave work, not giving your routine task of leaving the parking lot the attention it needs. This is when driving is at its most dangerous, and using your digital display to remind folks to back into their spot can be the first step toward keeping them safe in the parking lot.

While you’re at it, try expanding on the advantages of this parking strategy. For example, emergency preparedness is another benefit to backing in. In the event of an urgent evacuation, it’s much quicker to get into your vehicle and drive straight out. Meanwhile, backing out in a panicked state is a recipe for making a bad situation worse. Backing into a parking space also puts you in a better position if your battery dies and you need a boost—when you pull forward into the space, the battery is less accessible than if your hood is facing out. All of these are great points to help engage your workforce during Distracted Driving Awareness Month.

And why stop there? Linking topics to a common theme is a great way to give your digital display presentations a satisfying sense of flow. Take a lesson from local news and get specific by listing examples of risks in your own parking lot or parking garage. To save time and get to their desired space faster, drivers often cut through empty parking spaces, bringing a sense of chaos to the lot. Reminding employees to take the designated paths so they can avoid vehicle and pedestrian collisions is a great use for your April presentation. You can even add some visual flare by including a diagram with the proper routes and traffic directions highlighted.

A strong concluding call to action is as important to safety presentations as it is for news segments. Just as a meteorologist will provide guidance for your weekend plans, and a traffic reporter will provide suggested routes to avoid congestion, you have an opportunity to give your audience practical tips to help them avoid incidents. Conclude your presentation with a list of expected best practices and it will keep viewers thinking of safety after they’ve moved on with their days. These can include things like:

• Don’t rely solely on your backup camera—the technology may fail or not function properly at some point while using it.
• Slow down and pay attention to other drivers and pedestrians in a parking lot—they are often distracted and may not be paying attention to you, even though you’re following the rules.
• Never assume you have a clear right of way just because you don’t see another vehicle or pedestrian in your immediate vicinity in the parking lot. Parking lots have blind spots and reversing out of your parking spot reduces visibility and increases the blind spots.
• When attempting the “drive-thru” method of driving through one parking space to rest in another, proceed slowly and anticipate other drivers attempting to access the spot you’re driving through.
• Pay attention to road conditions when driving. If heavy rain is reducing visibility or making the road slippery, consider pulling over until the weather lets up.

By bringing a newsworthy attitude to your monthly digital display update, you’ll help your audience prepare to navigate those slippery roads of April showers, managing their human factors until May brings its flowers (and your next digital presentation).