Wellbeing

Safety is rightly a priority in most organisations. Policies exist, training is delivered and awareness days are celebrated and well intentioned. With World Day for Safety and Health at Work coming up on 28 April 2026, how can you ensure that the attention does not fade and that safe practice becomes part of everyday decision-making rather than something revisited once a year?

That was the focus of a recent Work Wonders conversation, where Nicola Curtis, Head of Health and Safety at Biffa, Renata Juste Gomes, HSE Global Senior Director at DHL Supply Chain and Simon Strong, Director of Learning at Download Learning joined our CEO, Sally Pritchett, to reflect on their experience of communicating safety across frontline workforces.

Making safety part of the job itself

At Biffa, an upward trend in high-potential near misses involving mobile plant prompted a closer look at what more could be done. Instead of issuing further instructions, the team began by listening. Drivers were invited into the conversation and asked what would genuinely support them to operate more safely.

As Simon explained during the session, health and safety cannot sit alongside the job as an additional layer. It needs to be embedded within competence itself. If safety is embedded within competence, communication has to align with that, speaking to professionalism rather than compliance.

The resulting “Aim for Success” programme focused on building intentional habits around reversing manoeuvres. The emphasis was not on listing hazards, but on encouraging anticipation, situational awareness and deliberate intention before movement. The language was carefully shaped to reflect how people speak on site, avoiding unnecessary technical terminology.

Although the training was initially designed for individual completion, teams chose to go through it together. That decision created space for discussion and reflection, which in turn led to practical improvements. In one depot, an operative identified a blind spot and requested mirrors to remove the risk.

Simplicity without patronising

If Biffa’s focus was on embedding safety within a specific operational context, DHL’s challenge was scale and diversity. Operating across more than 220 countries, with significant variation in language, culture and working environment, communicating consistently requires deliberate simplicity.

Renata described the deliberate effort to remove complexity from the message. In developing the “Our Safety is in Our Hands” campaign together, we focused on intentional simplicity in both visual identity and language so that it could travel across regions without losing meaning. Achieving that simplicity required discipline, with tone conveying respect for highly skilled frontline roles and imagery working across cultures and languages. In some cases, symbols that resonated in one region had to be reconsidered in another.

Importantly, the campaign was never intended as a single annual moment. While World Safety Day provided a useful focal point, the broader approach was always-on. Messages were broken into manageable themes and revisited throughout the year, with visual materials reinforcing conversations already taking place in team briefings and leadership discussions.

Local teams were encouraged to adapt the campaign in ways that made sense for their context. What felt engaging in one country might look different in another. That flexibility did not dilute the message; it strengthened its relevance.

Ownership and accountability

Across both case studies, ownership emerged as a defining factor. At DHL, the framing is explicit: safety sits in everyone’s hands. It is not confined to a function or a department. Managers, supervisors and frontline colleagues all play a role in holding standards and raising concerns.

At Biffa, drivers were positioned as professionals whose expertise shaped the training content itself.  When people feel trusted and responsible, behaviour becomes more consistent. That is why messages that rely solely on instruction rarely create lasting commitment, whereas communication that reinforces identity and shared standards is more likely to endure.

Avoiding complacency

A question raised during the session was how to prevent complacency over time. How do you stop visual materials becoming part of the background?

The panel agreed that motivation alone is not enough. Habits are more powerful than short bursts of enthusiasm. Sustained behaviour change relies on repetition, visible leadership commitment and regular, meaningful conversation.

World Safety Day can act as a catalyst by creating a moment to pause and reflect. However, without consistent reinforcement throughout the year, the effect diminishes. Sally described this through a simple analogy: awareness days can act like fireworks, capturing attention briefly, but what sustains culture is the steady bonfire that keeps people gathered in conversation.

For those responsible for communicating health and safety, this means thinking beyond the launch moment. It involves equipping middle managers with the confidence and tools to lead discussions, investing visibly in frontline activation and ensuring that tone always reflects respect for the complexity and skill of the roles involved.

From campaign to culture

What emerged from this Work Wonders session was not a formula, but a mindset. Embedding safety requires more than creative assets or annual initiatives. It calls for communication that reflects how work is actually done, that builds ownership at every level and that remains present throughout the year rather than appearing only at designated moments.

For internal communicators and those responsible for health and safety messaging, the role extends beyond informing. It is about helping to shape shared expectations and everyday habits so that safe practice becomes part of professional identity.

If you are reviewing how safety is communicated across your organisation ahead of World Safety Day, we would welcome the opportunity to talk.

This session formed part of Work Wonders, our community for people shaping workplace culture, communication and inclusion. If you would like to join future conversations and connect with others navigating similar challenges, you can find out more about becoming part of the community.

Watch the session: Transforming safety culture in the workplace