Hi,
I do something similar...
Matariki + shortest day/longest night = fatigue, shiftwork, managing sleep
Mental Health Week https://mentalhealth.org.nz/our-campaigns/mental-health-awareness-week
Earthquake Shake Out https://getready.govt.nz/en/involved/shakeout/
Dec - summer = heatstroke, sunburn, skin cancer, slip slop slap, hydration

https://www.healthnavigator.org.nz/healthy-living/h/health-promotion-calendar/

Often there is a bit of a splash in the media at the right time, which is always nice.

The Health Promotion Calendar / NZ Public Health Calendar (https://toiteora.govt.nz/publications-and-resources/calendar-of-events/) is published every year and provides excellent opportunities to leverage worldwide and nationwide events. The calendar also includes links to relevant websites where you can easily get more information and often resources like posters, flyers, etc. You can pick and choose which initiatives fit best with your own demographic.

Hi Cheryl
I have a monthly theme, and this used to guide the topic for the weekly toolbox talk.
When deciding your monthly theme think about the critical risks in your business, work activity and time of year. For example:

PPE - March (one of these each week, head, eye, hearing, hand, foot protection)
PPE - November (Sun protection, gloves, eye protection, Hi -Viz clothing).
Fit for Work - April [World Day for Safety & Health at Work]
Vehicles and Mobile Plant - May [Road Safety Week]


Here is a good resource for a calendar of events as well.
https://toiteora.govt.nz/publications-and-resources/calendar-of-events/

Here is a link to a subscription based video library resource from Australia.
https://www.safetyhub.com/au/

Regards, John

Thanks John, yeah I want the theme to filter in to toolbox talks as well and it might be that I have to have several - work from team to team varies greatly. But I think I'll focus on Mental health in September which will go hand in hand with the work our Wellbeing committee will be doing for MHAW. I'm coining the phrase "Psychological Safety September" :-)

Hi Cheryl, our neighbours across the ditch have an ‘R U Ok’ day on 08 September, some great resources on this website https://www.ruok.org.au/ . Cheers Ruth

Hi - we have a yearly programme with monthly themes across our business. This will have a "Need to Know" for the business as well as Toolbox topics - works well for us :)

We use last month's incident report trends to focus on in the coming month. The staff can relate to them and understand why we talk about them.

I find that telling a story about a person or team member first helps get buy in.

Floods in Nelson - Driving in wet weather.
Trip injury - Housekeeping
The unicorn is finding someone willing to talk about mental health.

Absolutely! And it has been great for encouraging conversation about certain topics, especially those that become "old news" and for helping prevent complacency creeping in, identifying new hazards that may now exist with changes since (whatever the topic is) first arose - example forklift safety for both operators and for pedestrians, new challenges arise with electrics, awareness of how these are controlled etc - new equipment changing over head hazards etc.

I do a monthly H&S topic and a monthly Wellness topic. They don't need to be long but identifying the current issues and raising awareness and conversation.
Carried out during monthly team H&S meetings to cover the majority but all have access if they aren't on shift to attend the meeting. All sign off to say they have viewed them.

Michael, "The unicorn is finding someone willing to talk about mental health" - we started with external speakers - Mike King, Paul Rangiwahia, ex-staff that have had major injuries that have impacted their lives (not necessarily relating to work), there are plenty out there willing to talk about their experiences, it gets easier and buy in comes, for most... eventually.

I was just looking for manual handling posters and found this!

https://library.safework.sa.gov.au/

Had to share my excitement, it gathers in resources from all over, and includes posters and videos and everything :heart: