“ It’ s the engagement of everybody on the team. It’ s not a monologue, it’ s a dialogue.”
because of that,’” she said.“ Then everyone on the crew is on the same page.”
Work Planning
While job safety briefings are effective tools for safety, they also offer an opportunity for field crews to reassess work routines and consider the full range of safety tools at their disposal.
“ Something that gets overlooked as a control is work planning,” said James Upton, director of safety operations at Urbint and former vice-chair of SIF research at the CSRA.“ Careful work planning can often eliminate or substitute hazards on site.”
McCallan and Nichols noted that field crews fall into patterns of behavior, but job safety briefings empower them to consider their activities with fresh eyes.
“ Think differently,” said Nichols.“ For example, place your vehicle as a barrier across the lane.”
McCallan noted how safety improves with just a little extra work planning.“ Over the years, I saw good supervisors that would not just give the work out but would go ahead and look at the job ahead of time,” he said.“ Planning is a big part time of day, location of equipment, all of those play into it.”
Secret Ingredient
Written job safety briefings have proven critical to safety at both National Grid and Georgia Power but both McCallan and Nichols stressed the importance of conversation in the briefing process.
“ At some point, we made a transition to a job safety briefing being a piece of paper,” Nichols said.“ But it’ s really
“ It’ s the engagement of everybody on the team. It’ s not a monologue, it’ s a dialogue.”
February 2026 • www. thepartsconnection. org • 9