Online Induction >> What is a Safety Induction?

What is a Safety Induction and why do you need one?

A safety induction is the first step to engaging your contractors, employees and visitors regarding working safely on site, in the workplace. It's typically made up of a series of steps around performing a job role safely by properly going through safety training, a site tour, hazards in the workplace to be aware of, collecting important licenses and certifications as evidence of training and being tested on their competency. It helps ensure that all workers are going to be job safe ready and to ensure that their coworkers will be safe too by inducting them on all safety topics, policies and procedures before they start working. (How a safety induction can save lives, 2019)

Many organisations create an online safety induction for all their staff and contractors to complete as part of engaging new starters before they start working in the role. A good safety induction will provide the groundwork and foundations for working safely in the organisation, protecting both the employee and their coworkers. It will cover important safety topics such as confined spaces, hazards to be aware of, how to report an incident, how to act and behave in the workplace and among your coworkers, what to do when something goes wrong, understanding important safety policies and procedures and getting an acknowledgement that the staff member has actually read and understood these areas.

Why is a Safety Induction so critical?

Safety inductions can be a major resource for helping prevent an injury or accident from happening in the workplace. It is the direct tool for bringing awareness of safety issues and procedures to all types of workers (from regular employees, contractors or even visitors). An effective safety induction can also ensure not just safety awareness affecting the person completing a job task or role but also ensure the safety of their coworkers too. It can set out important processes to follow such as how to report an incident, safety procedures for working at heights, confined spaces, access control, restricted areas through to hazard reports. See how safety inductions can save lives here.

13 Common Safety Induction Topics

A common set of safety induction topics includes:
working in confined spaces
understanding and awareness of specific hazards
working at heights
electrical safety
fire safety
emergency procedures
medical kit locations
evacuation locations
bullying and harassment policies
code of conduct
how to report an incident or hazard
local hospital contacts
local emergency services contacts

What happens when you don't do a safety induction?

For any site, project or workplace, when you skip this important stage of engaging a new staff member, supplier, contractor or visitor, the results can be catastrophic.

- increased risk of injury or even death
- higher incident reports and workers comp claims
- higher risk of contractors conducting unsafe and unchecked work on site
- contractors performing tasks they shouldn't be
- contractors accessing the site in ways they shouldn't be
- people working on site that shouldn't be
- staff performing roles they shouldn't be risking injury
- staff getting hurt by hazards when they could have been warned about them through the safety induction
- emergencies happening and staff not knowing what to do
- staff seeing an incident or near miss and not reporting it
- staff encountering a new hazard and not reporting it

How do you structure a safety induction?

A common structure organisations use for their safety induction is a mix of collecting information from their inductees, presenting safety materials to them to learn and understand, providing access to safety materials and ensuring they understand everything that has been asked of them through assessments and check lists. The first step might include an online form where you ask for evidence of training, certifications, emergency contact details such as next of kin or even known medical conditions that could affect your role on site. The next step might be a series of safety induction topics to progress through that might be site specific, organisation specific or role specific. A check list of important safety items to remember and be aware of might follow as well as a document library that might have downloadable forms, policies, procedures or even site maps. Finally, lets make sure that they understand everything by testing their competency and knowledge through an online safety induction assessment.

How to deliver a safety induction?

Modern safety inductions are delivered online and on mobile. Workers are typically doing their safety inductions before they arrive on site at a workplace to start their role. You might deliver the induction to a group of new employees or contractors as soon as they were engaged such as being informed on the phone that they got the job and the safety induction might be their next step before they formally start their new role. A contractor might be issued the safety induction to complete when they receive a work order to conduct trade work at a new location they have not worked at before. A contracting company might issue a safety induction to all its workers before they begin work at a project by sending them all an online link to complete the safety induction online.

In short, a safety induction is a major safety and risk reduction measure that every organisation should take seriously and ensure all staff, contractors and visitors have completed.

See how an online safety induction can work for your organisation by looking at the online demo via the form above or

Online Demo
  • See how it all works from the above online form!
13 Must Have Safety Induction Slides for your Presentation

Create your first Safety Induction Presentation

Safety Assessment

Safety Powerpoint Slides

What is a Safety Induction

Why do a Safety Induction



How a safety induction can save lives