How to run a toolbox talk

A toolbox talk is a short, regular conversation with the crew about one health and safety topic. It is not named in New Zealand law, and it is not the same thing as a pre-start briefing. It is how the participation duty gets met week after week on a site where nothing has changed.

What it is for

Section 61 of the Act requires a PCBU to have practices that give workers reasonable ongoing opportunities to take part in improving health and safety. "Ongoing" is the operative word: a single induction at the start of a job does not satisfy it, and neither does a briefing given only when a new task begins.

A toolbox talk is the usual answer because it is short enough to actually happen. Ten to fifteen minutes, one topic, the people who are on site that day.

How it differs from a pre-start briefing

Running one does not replace the other. A crew briefed on their Task Analysis on Monday still needs the participation practice that runs through the rest of the job.

Choosing the topic

The useful ones come from the site, not from a list. In order of value:

1. Something that nearly happened here. A near miss this week beats any general topic, and discussing it is also the review the regulations expect.
2. Something changing this week. A new trade arriving, a crane lift, a change of access, the scaffold coming down.
3. A control people have started working around. Usually visible before it becomes an incident.
4. A seasonal or conditions topic. Heat, wind, short daylight, wet access.
5. A standing high-risk topic for the trade, rotated through the job.

A topic chosen because it was next in a folder tends to produce a talk nobody remembers. The test is whether anyone could act on it today.

How to run one

1. Hold it where the work is. Standing at the thing you are discussing is worth more than any slide.
2. Say the topic and why it is today's. Thirty seconds.
3. Describe what can go wrong and what is in place. Two or three minutes.
4. Ask the crew. What have you seen, what is not working, what would you do differently. This is the part that is actually the duty.
5. Agree an action and name who owns it. If nothing needs doing, say so.
6. Record it and close.

What the record has to show

No regulation prescribes a form, so the record exists to answer the question somebody will ask later: who was told what, and when. That means date, topic, who ran it, who attended with their signatures, anything raised, and any action with an owner and a date.

The weak point is almost always the action. A talk that surfaces a problem and records no owner reads afterwards as evidence that the problem was known about and left, which is worse than not having held it.

How often

Weekly is the common cadence on an active site and is a defensible default. Daily is normal where the work or the crew changes daily. What matters is that the interval is regular enough that the practice is ongoing rather than occasional, which is what section 61 asks for.

Sources

• Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, ss58 to 59 (duty to engage) and s61 (worker participation practices)
• Health and Safety at Work (Worker Engagement, Participation and Representation) Regulations 2016
• Health and Safety at Work (General Risk and Workplace Management) Regulations 2016, regs 5 to 8
• WorkSafe New Zealand, Worker engagement, participation and representation, good practice guidance

This guide is general information about New Zealand health and safety law as at the review date. It is not legal advice and it does not describe your site. Confirm what applies to you with WorkSafe New Zealand or your adviser.