New-hires at talent and outsourcing firm Yoh learn from the start that safety is a core company value. During the onboarding process, when they receive benefits enrollment paperwork and federal tax forms, they also are given information about the company's Why Be Safe program.

In 2002, the company created the Why Be Safe program as a medium for its long-standing focus on safety, says Jim Lanzalotto, vice president of strategy & marketing for Yoh (www.yoh.com). The program promotes safety awareness by providing new-hires with an online safety orientation, as well as safety tips and procedures.

How the Program Works

Yoh employs between 4,500 and 5,000 employees at any given time, including staff employees who work in Yoh offices and "consultants" (also called "contract employees") who are placed in a variety of client industries.

New hires are invited to complete the safety orientation at www.whybesafe.com. To ensure that they actually visit the site and read the available information, they are required to answer related questions on a paper survey--tailored to their job assignment--and then submit the survey when they return their tax forms and benefit enrollment information, according to Lanzalotto.

Upon entering the site, the new hire is greeted by "Beatrice Safe," a cartoon character created internally at Yoh, who is more commonly referred to as "Bea Safe." In a written message, Bea Safe welcomes the new hire aboard and explains that safety is a priority at Yoh.

Bea Safe then instructs the new hire to select one of eight work-specific safety orientation programs, depending on his or her job assignment with Yoh: general office, health care, help desk, home safety, industrial, laboratory, on-the-road, or telecommunications. Topics covered include electrical safety, ergonomics, fire safety, general home safety, bloodborne pathogens, chemical spills, ladder safety, personal protective equipment, and more.

Yoh reinforces its safety message through visits that its national safety director makes to client sites; a weekly employee newsletter, which includes a message from Bea Safe; and a safety topic discussion at the beginning of every meeting with employees or customers, Lanzalotto says, noting that the company also distributes laminated "reminder" cards containing safety messages from Bea Safe.

Why is safety such a priority for Yoh? "We're literally in one of those businesses where our inventory leaves at the end of the day. Our most important asset is the people who work for us," he says. "It's our primary goal to make sure the people who work for us stay safe at work, at home, and on the road."

The company's efforts have paid off. This June, Yoh reported that it had reached a significant safety milestone--64 million work hours completed over 6 years without a days-away-from-work incident due to a work-related injury. The figure is particularly impressive when you consider that Yoh doesn't have day-to-day oversight of its consultants.

What to Do

Lanzalotto offers the following advice to employers who want to offer effective safety training. "Make it unique. Make it different enough that people will pay attention to it," he says, noting that Yoh was able to draw attention to safety by introducing Bea Safe. "You've got to be compelling to people. Otherwise, it comes across as another corporate program."

He also recommends communicating your safety message on an ongoing basis--formally and informally--from the time new-hires come onboard. "Start early and be as repetitive as possible without turning people off from the idea ? Make safety part of your DNA and part of the way the company acts and thinks."