Toolbox Talk: Pre-Task Planning

Before you start

Pick a real task the crew will do today and use it as the example during the talk.

Read this to your crew

Most incidents happen when something about the job changes or nobody stopped to think it through. A few minutes of planning before work starts can catch hazards that are hard to spot once everyone is busy.

Today we will walk through a quick pre-task plan for a real job.

Key points

Break the job into steps. List the main steps from setup to clean-up.
Ask what could go wrong. For each step, think about falls, energy, chemicals, moving equipment, heavy lifts and the people around you.
Pick the best controls. Remove the hazard if you can. Otherwise use guards, barriers, procedures and PPE.
Talk it through as a crew. Make sure everyone knows the plan, their role and what to do if something goes wrong.
Stop and re-plan when things change. New people, new equipment, weather or a surprise on site means stop and update the plan.

Ask the crew

What is the riskiest step in today's job?
What has changed since we last did this task?
What would make us stop and re-plan today?

Picture this

A crew arrives to replace a pump. Nobody discusses the job, and one worker starts unbolting the discharge line while another is still isolating the pump. The line is still under pressure and sprays the first worker. A two-minute pre-task talk would have set the order of work.

Print this page to use the sign-in sheet, or skip the paper and record attendance digitally in SafetyIQ.

Name

Company / crew

Signature

Talk leader: ______________ Date: ______________ Site: ______________