When it comes to workplace safety and training, regularly revisiting compliance requirements and employee experience help team members be safe and feel safe too.
Organizations review safety procedures in June for National Safety Month and host employee engagement activities, such as recognition and training, to increase awareness and strengthen company culture.
Many on-the-job injuries, hazardous accidents and toxic behavior are preventable. In 2024, 27% of employees in the U.S. missed work due to cuts or wounds, while another 27% were absent due to overexertion and 26% due to falls. In total, over 5,000 fatal work injuries occurred in 2024 in the U.S.
According to the American Psychological Association, 89% of employees in toxic workplaces experience a lack of psychological safety. Toxic behavior at work, such as bullying or undermining peers, breaks down employer trust and communication, impacting physical and mental employee safety.
Reinforcing safety habits and opening the discussion of employee well-being goes beyond June. National Safety Month ideas and initiatives help teams create a culture of safety that keeps everyone safe and healthy year-round.
What is National Safety Month?
The National Safety Council (NSC) established June as National Safety Month to provide organizations with an opportunity to review and promote safety procedures.
It sounds simple, but awareness and education can often prevent accidents, reducing on-the-job injuries and fatalities.
Building a safety culture isn’t just about creating an engaged workplace. It’s about protecting your people’s holistic well-being, safeguarding both their physical and psychological safety.
Workplaces constantly evolve, whether that’s a change in management, advances in technology or fluctuations in business. Re-evaluating health and safety procedures each year gives employees and leaders an opportunity to adapt best practices to recent challenges and changes.
Related: How to make safety engagement part of your organizational culture
How to plan each week of National Safety Month
NSC’s resources include weekly topics to help organizations plan activities and campaigns. These topics help teams organize employee initiatives and campaigns.
2026 National Safety Month weekly topics
- Week 1: Moving safety forward
- Week 2: Promoting holistic worker health
- Week 3: Staying safe on the roads
- Week 4: Preventing slips, trips and falls
Employee engagement activities throughout the month reinforce ideal workplace behaviors that prioritize employee well-being. NSC offers free resources to get started, such as promotional materials, a safety pledge and educational articles and videos.
7 National Safety Month ideas to engage employees this June
National Safety Month highlights challenges employees face every day on the factory floor, at the job site or on the road. These necessary steps keep individuals, peers and the community safe.
Employee engagement activities encourage team members to interact and think critically about safety topics, creating a more memorable learning experience. To kick off June, let your team know about your participation in National Safety Month and why this is an important time to review best practices.
1. Host short safety talks
Host brief 10- to 20-minute safety talks. Plan these talks at the beginning of a shift or at the end of the week throughout National Safety Month and promote them in advance. Create a small event and offer snacks and drinks to encourage participation.
Each talk can cover topics relevant to your organization or team, ranging from distracted driving to identifying signs of burnout.
Share case studies or industry stories and invite direct feedback. Have questions or discussion prompts ready. If you have any team members or managers with experience in that topic, invite them to share.
2. Run a points-based safety challenge
Gamify the experience by hosting online challenges that break down important safety topics into short lessons.
Safety month activity ideas to host online
- Complete mini online quizzes
- Share takeaways after watching a short safety video each week
- Record a short video about a safety tip or procedure
Through ITA Group’s Cooleaf engagement platform, employees can participate at times that work best for them. Team members who complete the challenge earn points that they can redeem for employee rewards such as gift cards, high-end tech products or branded team swag.
Employee incentives encourage team members to participate, increasing engagement as more employees see peers and managers join.
Example: safety month online challenge
We worked with United Communications, a high-speed fiber communications company, to help promote workplace safety in a creative way. The team hosted Safety Shark Week, which included fun challenges.
Employees shared a selfie about practicing workplace safety. Teams also designed their own safety posters and voted on their favorites. The design with the most votes went on display at all of their locations and received a bonus prize of added points on their recognition/rewards platform.
3. Share safety resources
Create a safety messaging campaign for June. Use the NSC topics for each week or divide each week between supervisors to lead a key safety message for the week. Leverage an employee engagement solutions partner, like ITA Group, to create a full calendar of online and in-person messaging.
Safety resource ideas
- Hang up posters on best safety practices, such as wearing appropriate gear
- Reshare a checklist of procedures, like moving heavy equipment
- Record small videos with a manager who talks through emergency preparedness
Use both digital and physical media to send out your message. Create email newsletters and post bite-sized content on workplace communication platforms, like Cooleaf’s main feed or dedicated Slack or Teams channels.
Physical formats like posters, wallet cards and printed tip sheets in key areas ensure visibility. Consider where deskless and frontline teams convene regularly, such as the break lounge, locker rooms or meeting spaces.
Share additional resources for both physical and psychological support, so employees know where to go if they have further questions.
Related: 7 ways to instill physical and psychological safety in your employee experience
4. Simulate emergency drills
Run a realistic, simulated drill with your team. Pick an emergency or safety procedure that’s impactful in your workplace—such as a shelter-in-place drill, factory spills or medical emergencies like how to use an AED.
Your team can talk through the scenario or model the emergency to help employees learn by doing and collaborating with other departments towards a solution.
Encourage employees to perform as if the exercise were real. They should confirm emergency plans and evacuation procedures as needed, test communication flows and work together to improve their response as a team.
Debrief with your teams after the drill. This is their chance to review the process, ask questions and suggest improvements to the procedures in place. Much like a fire drill, a simulation strengthens teams and prepares them for challenging scenarios, if or when they happen.
5. Survey employees on safety
Before you plan your safety program for National Safety Month, identify what safety procedures need revisiting and how employees feel while at work. Gather employee feedback on physical and mental well-being at work.
Use pulse surveys with 10 questions or fewer to streamline the process and gather as much feedback as possible. Through Cooleaf, you can run anonymous pulse surveys, which encourage candid employee feedback. The more honest feedback you capture, the better you can understand what topics to review or resources your team needs.
Ask your HR team to share results and outline your next steps. That way managers can use the results to highlight improvements or flag needs for further training.
Related: Employee surveys
6. Run demo days
Host workplace demos throughout the day, so all shifts can participate. National Safety Month demo ideas can range from fire extinguisher talks, CPR demos or a walk-through of appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and Safety Data Sheets (SDS).
Bring in experts, outside vendors or certified trainers to walk through topics and answer additional questions.
You can also turn these demo days into social events and pair them with food or additional team activities.
7. Host a spot-the-hazard photo contest
Walk employees through ideal safety procedures to prevent potential hazards in their work environment. Share photos of bad examples and what not to do.
In response, encourage employees to photograph and share good examples of what teams should do instead.
Employees can post their photos on a shared communication channel, like a live social feed or integrated Microsoft Teams chat, or submit them to the employee newsletter. Reward employees’ participation with points they can redeem in a recognition/rewards platform. They have the flexibility to choose, such as gift cards, new PPE or even a donation to a charity in their name.
Related: Employee rewards
Develop a safety culture that lasts
While reviewing safety with teams, it’s important not only to share safety messaging but also to encourage employees to engage with the concepts. Employee recognition incentivizes team members to follow ideal safety behaviors, simulated drills create memorable learning experiences and surveys help leaders create a comprehensive safety program.
As your organization reinforces safer practices, supporting employees’ physical and mental well-being becomes ingrained into workplace culture. National Safety Month might just be a campaign in June, but imagine your workplace a year from now. Safety incidents decrease and psychological safety and employee morale is high.
If you’re looking for support, ITA Group partners with organizations to help design behavior-based safety training and recognition programs that resonate with their employees.
Learn how to embed workplace safety into your company culture with our white paper on modern workplace safety.