Tailboard safety meetings are 10-15 minute on the-job meetings held to keep employees alert to work related accidents and illnesses. Tailboard safety meetings have proved their worth by alerting employees to workplace hazards, and by preventing accidents, illnesses and on-the- job injuries.
Tailboard safety meetings can be used to address actual problems on the job or in the shop. The supervisor/foreman leading the meeting can draw on the experience of workers, and use that experience to remind all employees – especially newer ones – of the dangers of working with particular kinds of machinery, tools, equipment and materials.
During Tailboard safety meetings a hazard assessment should be completed. Hazard Assessments are required to identify and address existing conditions that pose actual or potential safety hazards. Once identified, hazards can be eliminated or otherwise addressed by using (1) engineered design changes, (2) procedural/administrative controls (such as lockout/tagout (LOTO)), (3) personal protective equipment (PPE), (4) insulating protective equipment (IPE), or (5) other appropriate means or a combination of methods to protect workers from safety hazards.
Subsequent to staring any job or day’s work, the supervisor/foreman will call the entire crew for a conference or a ”Tailboard Meeting”. This conference should accomplish the following:
- Each worker will understand the purpose of the job.
- Each worker will understand what he/she is to do.
- Each worker will understand what the other members of the crew are to do.
- Each worker will understand the intended manner of carrying on the job.
- Each worker will understand the hazards or trouble spots involved and will know how the employee in charge is proposing to overcome such problems.
- Each worker will understand existing hazards involved with the job.
The supervisor/foreman will encourage questions, comments, and suggestions by the crew members; and fill out the Daily Tailboard, which will be turned in with payroll weekly.