by CartooningGenius | Jul 26, 2017 | Blog
A safety cartoon could supply the answer…
Whichever sector your business is in, it’s more than likely that health and safety plays an important role in your day-to-day functions. Whether that’s employing full-time advisers, creating and updating manuals or designing training programmes, these procedures are necessary for the wellbeing of both you and your employees.
As well as helping make your workplace a safer environment for staff, investing in your health and safety practices also makes good business sense. Improvements can help reduce your accident losses. They can also improve your business profile with your customers and drive overall company efficiency.
Which methods work the best? Viewing a safety cartoon?
If you want to develop a positive health and safety culture in your organisation, a good place to start is by creating a comprehensive training programme. This may sound like a large undertaking, but having a solid foundation to build upon is incredibly important.
Having a committed health and safety policy that aids your training programme can also help with your efforts. This doesn’t need to be too complicated or time consuming. A document that lets employees and other stakeholders know about your commitment will work. In your policy it should clearly state who does what, when and how they do it.
Following on from this, you could also hire a dedicated health and safety officer to oversee the design and upkeep of the policy and training guide. As your business grows, trying to keep on top of all procedures and implement any new guidelines can be frustrating without the proper support.
While these are all helpful suggestions, they can be quite time consuming. Thankfully, there’s one health and safety tool that can quickly convey your message, that’s also easy for your staff to digest. The health and safety cartoon.
Why choose a health and safety cartoon?
Put yourself in your employees’ shoes. They will be constantly bombarded with information each and every day. After a tiring shift, or in the middle of a particularly long week, most of this will probably go over their heads. A great way to smash through all this information clutter is with a cartoon.
The reason why cartoons have been used throughout history is that they have an irresistible appeal. People just have to read them and know what’s going on. They get curious. If you have some dotted around your workplace, in the few seconds it takes for staff to satisfy their curiosity, your vital health and safety message has been delivered.
A good safety cartoon should include some humour, so your staff can get the point whilst also making it easy for them to remember the message. It really makes it easier to internalise training if serious information can be made light hearted and fun, and cartoons are excellent at doing this.
If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, you can find details on some of my cartoon designs here. I also offer a bespoke service, so if you have something else in mind or would like custom work done please contact me here and we can discuss.
For safety cartoons call Richard on +44 1246 209034 or email
by CartooningGenius | Jul 14, 2017 | Blog
Benefits of Health аnd Safety Cartoons
Whіlе thе majority оf people іn а workplace understand thаt thеrе іѕ а nееd fоr health аnd safety, thеrе іѕ оftеn аn іmmеdіаtе turnoff whеn thе term іѕ brought up. Thеrе іѕ nоw аn аlmоѕt blanking оf thе term, wіth mаnу people equating tо effectively banning thе wау thаt people uѕеd tо work оr carry оut thеіr activities. Thіngѕ аrе nоt lіkе thе good оld days but іn mаnу ways, thеу аrе fоr thе bеttеr аnd thе increase іn health аnd safety іѕ аn important factor іn improved working conditions.
Thе challenge fоr employers іѕ tо gеt thе key points аbоut health аnd safety асrоѕѕ tо thеіr employees іn thе rіght manner. Tо engage wіth employees, thе information can’t bе boring оr dull аnd yet, іt hаѕ tо gеt thе relevant points across. Thіѕ саn bе а tall order but іf уоu nееd tо ensure thаt уоur employees аrе оn board fоr health аnd safety, thеrе mау bе а wау tо dо ѕо effectively wіthоut breaking thе bank.
Tо gеt а message асrоѕѕ effectively, thе message hаѕ tо bе delivered sharply, effectively аnd іn а format thаt people wіll асtuаllу wаnt tо read. Onе оf thе bеѕt ways tо deliver а health аnd safety message іѕ thrоugh health аnd safety cartoons. Vеrу fеw people аrе gоіng tо tаkе thе time tо read pages оf script telling thеm whаt thеу саn аnd саnnоt do. However, іf уоu provide employees wіth а fеw cartoon strips, еіthеr online оr іn paper format, уоu wіll find thаt thе vast majority оf employees wіll tаkе thе time tо read іt over.
Engagement іѕ good but thеrе nееdѕ tо bе mоrе
Thіѕ ensures thаt thе fіrѕt step іn gеttіng а positive health аnd safety message асrоѕѕ tо employees hаѕ bееn taken. Engagement іѕ important but thеrе іѕ аlѕо а nееd tо mаkе ѕurе thаt thе message соmеѕ across. Thіѕ іѕ whеrе іt іѕ оf benefit tо turn tо а professional. Mоѕt workplaces wіll hаvе ѕоmеоnе wіth drawing talent but thеrе іѕ а nееd tо bе аblе tо deliver а great оr interesting illustration wіth а health аnd safety cartoon.
Health аnd safety cartoons nееd tо obvious, іt nееdѕ tо bе іmmеdіаtе аnd іt nееdѕ tо bе vеrу clear іn whаt іt іѕ saying.
Thіѕ іѕ whу hiring thе services оf а cartoonist whо hаѕ а great deal оf experience іn thіѕ area wіll bе оf benefit tо аnу firm оr business. Wіth respect tо vаluе fоr money, thе return thаt соmеѕ frоm uѕіng а professional іn thіѕ field outstrips thе vаluе оf uѕіng ѕоmеоnе in-house whо mау nоt bе аblе tо gеt thе rіght point across. Thіѕ mау create а funny cartoon оr аn illustration thаt іѕ оf high quality but wіth respect tо thе proper health аnd safety message, іt wіll nоt bе sufficient.
by CartooningGenius | May 25, 2017 | Blog, Safety cartoon
Kitchen restaurant hazards: spillages and leaks
For a health and safety officer combating potential workplace injuries, you’d be hard pressed to find somewhere as hazardous as a restaurant kitchen. The environment is incredibly fast-paced, and there’s so many things that happen each day that can put your employees at risk.
As you know, part of a health and safety officer’s job is staying on top of these risks. Sometimes, though, this is easier said than done. There’s so many common risks. From blocked fire escapes to damaged electrical wiring and everything in between. You constantly have to stay on guard to make sure everyone is safe.
Liquid spillages and leaks
There is some good news, however, as one of the most common dangers can also be the easiest to solve. It’s likely that staff be working with various oils, fats and liquids on a day to day basis. If employees don’t take care with these they can end up spilling or splattering onto the floor, leaving a dangerous area for their colleagues.
Water can also easily escape the kitchen dishwasher as your staff change the racks, and sinks and basins can easily overflow leaving puddles on the floor. It’s natural for staff who work long hours to want to rush through the pile of dirty dishes as quickly as possible, but it can be hazardous for the rest of their team.
Similarly, if staff are in a hurry when transporting oil around the kitchen, the contents will likely land on the floor. In cleaning any spillages, mop buckets can easily be overfilled with water and cleaning liquid, or left scattered about in the kitchen haphazardly. It’s also really common for trips to occur with an abandoned mop bucket.
Reducing the risk to your employees
While spillages can be really common, there are a few tips and tricks you can implement right away that can help make your kitchen a safer working environment:
- Require employees to wear non-slip footwear
- Install flooring materials that have good grip
- Implement a safe transport method for oils and other liquids that move frequently around the area
- Use equipment that prevents liquids from escaping, like special mop bucket lids
- Use brightly coloured materials to draw employees’ attention to potential hazards
- Create visual cues around the kitchen that highlights any danger
Your could also design a comprehensive training manual for staff, and advise them of what the health and safety best practices are. One way to help increase the ‘stickyness’ of your training is to include visual imagery. Although lengthy training sessions and coaching are important, you also want a method that will actually resonate with your employees long after they leave the workplace.
One visual medium you should consider is cartoons. These work tremendously well, especially if they convey the information in a humorous way. I have designed a cartoon that highlights the many common restaurant healthy and safety risks, which is also light hearted and fun. You can find out more details about this cartoon here. I also offer a bespoke service, so if you have something else in mind or would like custom work done please contact me here and we can discuss.
The above cartoons are extracts from my ‘restaurant-kitchen-health-and-safety-cartoon’ which you can purchase from this link: http://www.cartoonmotivators.com/Restaurant-Kitchen-health-and-safety-hazards.html
by CartooningGenius | May 24, 2017 | Blog, Safety cartoon
What incidents have taken place in your office?
In the course of a busy day, who hasn’t attempted to carry too many things at once in order to hurry through a task or overloaded a power-socket to make sure that all of the necessary electrical appliances were operating? Collectively, it’s a humorous take on the various health and safety issues that can cause serious problems in the workplace, but taking each issue individually on its own merits, it’s a handy reminder of how to not to behave in the workplace.
Workplaces cannot afford for employees to suffer an injury in the workplace. An injured person who isn’t in work means that the company is light an employee with their work being left untouched or leaving other people to shoulder the burden of their absence. This may impact on the level of service provided to the end consumer or it may result in a company having to hire temporary staff to cover their absence. The thing about staff members suffering an injury in work, these issues are only the beginning of a company’s troubles.
by CartooningGenius | May 23, 2017 | Blog
Health and Safety Cartoons
Using health and safety cartoons has been proven as very beneficial and effective, especially in the workplace. The cartoons grasp people’s attention quickly and the messages they’re sending are understood easily and within seconds. This can help save a person’s life or prevent losing a limb so it’s an investment that will definitely be worth your money. If you use a professional cartoonist to create customized health and safety cartoons for you, your entire workforce can benefit.
Childhood Memories
One of the reasons for the effectiveness of the health and safety cartoons is that we all grew up with cartoons and have learned how they function. The cartoons are also something we all like(d) to watch so they’re real attention grabbers. The audience likes cartoons and many industries are using this fact to make successful advertising campaigns. Cartoons get the message across within a few moments, and the message can be comprehended by many people. On the other hand, if you only use written text, many won’t bother to read it and a portion of those who do read it may not understand it. In addition, a professionally drawn health and safety cartoon will also contain a pinch of humor to lighten up the atmosphere without minimising the dangers that are lurking. When the cartoon is skilfully made, the concept is clear and the message is strong and effective.
Lowering the tension
Again, the cartoons we watched as children made a positive impact on us. They were filled with humour and made us feel good. In the same manner, using health and safety cartoons around the workplace can help reduce the tension and make people more relaxed, counting the happiness and fun associated with cartoons. These cartoons can also work as conversation starters and get people to talk about them. That’s something a dull message or a sign can never do. You can get your workers to unite around it with humor but with a serious underline meaning.
