How do you use Heads Up to engage with your team?

  • 20 March 2023
  • 6 replies
  • 257 views
Keiran Woods
Rank
Badge +2

Hi SC Community! 

Heads Up is designed to allow you to communicate with your team wherever they are, and know they have received the message. It’s use case can be for toolbox talks, updates, recognition and so much more.

Many tend to take a while to adopt it for various reasons. But Heads Up can be invaluable in closing the loop when thinking about continuous improvement - for example a recurring incident is noticed through analytics that is regularly raised as an Action (or an Issue) linked to an inspection. When collating data or speaking with managers, it is uncovered there is a simple adjustment that could be made - like improving the lighting in a space to avoid trips and falls - where the change could be communicated using Heads Up.

I’m curious as to how you and your team use Heads Up? and if you are not using it, why not? It would be great to hear some examples of how you are using Heads Up to create discussion find new ways to improve! 

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6 replies

Matt Gregory
Userlevel 1
Badge +2

Hi Keiran,

We’re currently using Heads Up to communicate issues and lessons learned, but I agree that this feature has a lot of potential.  Last year we also started using it to get time-sensitive info to the right parts of our team for a few natural disasters and that proved mighty valuable, especially with some of the weather events we had around the world.  

We’re looking to start sending our toolbox talks out via Heads Up here in the next few months (pilot program starting here in April).  It’s been on our list for a while - quick video with an accompanying write-up to reach the team directly instead of using templates - it’s easier to set up, send, and track.

Speaking of tracking/compliance, one thing I’d love to see is the Heads Up data coming through the exporter pipe (or API to BI once that becomes more useful).  The Heads Up manager has great info on it, but it all stays in the system’s analytics and for those of us using the exporter to connect with BI or Tableau (or other means), we’re having to go to multiple places to get data.  That said, the power of this feature is such that I’m not going to worry too much about looking in the system to see who’s done what.  Just an idea that would make a great thing even better.

MG

Matt Gregory, CSP, PMP, CHST
Keiran Woods
Rank
Badge +2

Hi Matt, 

 

Thank you for sharing! Great to see you are using it in ways that aligns to what it was designed for and even more. I work with some customers who have found it very useful for weather related incidents or similar which allowed the right people to be notified all at once. 

 

Toolbox talks are great for Heads Up - it would be great to see/hear an example on here so we can see how you are creating and sharing them. It’s also a good way to then follow up (if needed) with any other inspection or action when it is acknowledged (or when it isn’t). 

 

Some positive news (you may already have seen) The SafetyCulture API now has some Heads Up functionality! What sort of Heads Up data would you like to see coming through? 

 

Thanks for contributing to this conversation as well!

 

- Keiran

Matt Gregory
Userlevel 1
Badge +2

Hi Keiran,

 

Stay tuned on examples, we’re still in the discussion stage and will be prototyping it soon - I’m not sure what it’ll look like yet, but I’m thinking of a quick video along with a PDF one-page doc to amplify details of the topic at hand.  We’ve found that these quick videos are extremely effective, though I’d LOVE to have a four minute limit on them!  

That API JSON looks like it’s got everything we’d want, but the problem with the API (at least into Power BI) is that it takes far too long to import all the data (probably a first run only kind of situation), to the point that we can’t use it with BI (I’ve got a couple of folks over in Ireland who use it with Tableau).  We’re talking hours to import our data set, and honestly we’ve never actually been able to do it successfully.  We currently use the exporter and point a SQL server to my local drive where the export lives (much thanks to Roby for the wizardry on that one).  Is there a way to set the import only to grab the Heads Up info, or alternatively, is the Heads Up data available via the exporter?

MG

Matt Gregory, CSP, PMP, CHST
Corey
Rank
Userlevel 3
Badge +4

We haven’t leveraged Heads Up because of how we use the platform in the manufacturing space where everyone doesn’t have their own personal device.  I would like to see Heads Up have an option to make it stay visible on the dashboard/home page for a certain number of days, even if the user viewed it or clicked Acknowledge.

Andrew Gabb
Rank
Userlevel 2
Badge +4

Hey Keiran. 

Heads up is such a great addition to the platform and we have been using it since last June. We use it extensively for everything from 

Safety alerts - eg. strong wind warnings last week and steps that can be taken (whole company)

toolbox talks - eg. Our clients obligation to hold asbestos information (project managers)

Updates to processes - eg. roll out of amended risk ranking matrix (site operatives)

Work instructions to simplify processes - eg. setting up SafetyCulture notifications to come through to your mobile

Lessons learnt, shout outs and more. 

The two greatest things about it are being able to target your audience and tracking who has viewed and acknowledged the heads up. 

Awesome. 

 

Andrew Gabb
Jimmy Arbour
Badge +1

We use Heads-Up for issuing short, daily safety huddle topics to our entire organization from front line workers to executives. We also use Heads-Up to publish information to specific groups about specific topics.

Example: Last week our Product Integrity Team released a short video each day touching on a different Product Integrity Topic daily. This Heads-Up went to all site managers, drivers and warehouse employees (Heads-Up scheduling was key in this).

One of the powerful aspects of Heads-Up is that you can have greater confidence that the message is getting to the intended audience and confirm whether they have actually received it or not. This was next to impossible before the release of heads-up. We merely relied on our, very busy, site leaders to share the information. Heads-Up cleared the path!

The ability for employees to comment, while could be a two-edged sword, has actually opened up some very constructive dialogue that has helped foster continuous improvement. We look at these comments and reach out to the employees as practical to get a better understanding of the constraints, or successes, so that we can work together as a team.

Jimmy Arbour
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