“ It’ s the engagement of everybody on the team. It’ s not a monologue, it’ s a dialogue.”
JOBSITE SAFETY
Pre-Job Briefings being a piece of paper,” Nichols said.“ But it’ s really the conversation that goes with that piece of paper and the individuals that are having those conversations.”
“ It’ s the engagement of everybody on the team,” McCallan added.“ It’ s not a monologue, it’ s a dialogue.”
New hires with little experience may not recognize common hazards on utility jobsites. Likewise, veteran workers tend to normalize the risk of hazards over time. Both groups can advance safety by sharing their knowledge and observations with each other.
“ If we put out safety guidelines and have a conversation in the field about them, that makes everybody’ s life easier,” Nichols said.
Tell a Story
At CSRA, Upton noted, new research on construction and utility safety has shown the unique value of storytelling in making the safety message hit home.“ If you can pull in some kind of emotional connection to the task that you’ re doing, then your hazard prediction rates are higher in the future,” he said.
“ One of the things we’ re trying to do at Georgia Power is tie past incidents to tasks,” Nichols related. That way, when you’ re having these discussions in the field, things that happened in the past build a connection so your risk perception is different.”
McCallan has found storytelling effective for safety as well.“ We learn from past mistakes, we learn from successes,” he pointed out.“ Having somebody share a story is valuable in how we identify hazards.”
Technology Support
“ If you ask a typical supervisor what keeps you in the office, it’ s paperwork,” said McCallan.“ They’ re
“ It’ s the engagement of everybody on the team. It’ s not a monologue, it’ s a dialogue.”
not out in the field seeing what’ s happening and making sure that things are being done safely and productively. Using a digital process allows them to have more of those conversations now than before.”
Georgia Power is already leveraging technology for its job safety briefings.“ The feed will come from our work management system with a list of tasks into that app for the crew to look at, and it’ ll be designated high, medium or low risk,” Nichols explained.“ That includes things that workers might have overlooked or just not had a conversation about.”
Nichols also pointed out that turnover in recent years has driven the need for technology. New hires into the industry are often inexperienced with leading job safety briefings, and technology offers a way to make them more consistent and effective.
“ With the app, there will be things that the crew leader can pull from— short videos, lessons learned from another jobsite incident— that help trigger the conversation,” Nichols said.
Ultimately, job safety briefings don’ t serve as a separate task. Good ones stand as a way that a company’ s safety culture shows itself.“ When safety is part of the business, you’ ve won,” Nichols said.
Checklist: Best Practices for Tailgate Safety Briefings
Before the Briefing Confirm the specific work tasks for today Review yesterday’ s incidents or near misses Assign roles( facilitator, recorder)
During the Briefing State clear job objectives Identify known and potential hazards Discuss controls and mitigation measures Solicit questions and input from the crew End with a verbal affirmation of understanding
After the Briefing Document topic, attendees and key actions Update hazard logs and corrective actions Follow up on items before job completion Review outcomes with supervisors at shift change
12 l January-February 2026