New Year, New Staff: Road Safety Training For New Hires

It’s the new year and your company wants to implement practices to make sure new employees are safe on the road. Where do you start?

Onboarding Best Practices

The basics of road safety start with fastening seat belts, not driving impaired, and keeping safe speeds on the roadways. But there is more you can do to make sure your employees remain safe on the road. It’s important to start off on the right foot and set the right tone.

Ask new employees to provide their driver’s history. Why? It can indicate a pattern problem.

“A company that is willing to ask for their new employee’s driving history and a driver’s test immediately says they take road safety seriously,” said David Jaenike, founder of Safety Knights, an online community of safety professionals.

How do you course correct instead of losing a promising employee?

Make it a point to provide training if an employee’s driving record shows potentially hazardous violations, Jaenike said. Proactively addressing your employee’s driving behavior sets expectations and can help them be mindful of road safety practices while on the job.

“Whether it’s in the vehicle or in the classroom setting, having a hands-on training will help drive home the company’s emphasis on road safety,” Jaenike said.

Other ways to reinforce road safety:

• Set expectations upfront – During the new hire training session, outline what you plan to track and how employee drivers will be evaluated.
• Know your audience – Whether you use monthly tailgate meetings or newsletters to keep safety at the forefront, breakdown the communication in digestible formats for your employees.
• Make it positive – From the beginning, offer incentives to reward good driving to reinforce safety as a priority.
• Reinforce safe practices – Gamify road safety to help employees retain policy information.
• Sign on the dotted line – Provide driver’s manuals that outline road safety policies and how they will be evaluated in detail and have them sign it.

Through thorough new hire training and ongoing safety communications, you can help keep your employees and business safe.