Product: The Safety Bit – video
Author: CBI/TUC
Name and Address of publisher: OutTakes, 139 High Street, Beckenham, Kent, BR3 1AG. Tel: 020 8289 2466
Date of publication: Autumn 2000
ISBN: Not known
Price: £450 to buy, £95 to hire for two days or £145 to hire for five days.
'The Safety Bit' is a 15-minute video which stresses the importance of individual responsibility in maintaining a safe workplace. It is aimed at the new employee or contractor. It doesn't contain any 'How to...' scenarios, but does come with a course-leaders booklet, outlining, in the simplest form possible, ways of using the video, and suggesting supporting activities.
Although my desk has often been described as a health hazard, I needed a second opinion on this one, so I showed it to a friend of mine. She spent ten years advising new recruits on Health and Safety in a hazardous work place; knows her stuff, and her client group.
Where I thought it was a good opener for a short H&S session, meeting all the rules of training videos, with good production values, she didn't like it. "Too patronising" was her verdict. "Too slow. People don't want to watch a video telling them it's their responsibility, they need to be told what to do." And she had a point. Making this video relevant to all industry sectors has resulted in it being vague to the point of having nothing to say. It has ended up as an overlong pep talk. Which is annoying, because the other videos in the series deal more specifically with safety issues, and if they mix the snappy presentation and impressive production of 'The Safety Bit' with giving more factual advice and examples, then they will be well worth a look.
'The Safety Bit' was reviewed by Stephen Pridgeon.
