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Best practice for choosing the helmet your team will want to wear

PPE

In the safety game, the safest equipment is the one a team is willing to wear 

Despite hard hats being a critical component of keeping employees safe from harm, a recent survey commissioned by MSA Safety revealed that nearly 50% of workers “don’t ever” or “rarely” wear a hard hat.  Just 17% of respondents said that they wear a hard hat most of the time.  

When asked what put people off from wearing a hard hat:

• 26% of respondents said they were uncomfortable,

• 18% said that they stopped them from doing their jobs properly,

• 10% said they made them feel too hot

• And 6% said that hard hats do not fit properly.  

It should come as little surprise, given these issues cited, that many workers end up running the risk of not wearing a hard hat. Uncomfortable, bulky and ill-fitting helmets hinder a worker’s ability to do their job properly, and contributes to them spending more time worrying about their hard hat than the job at hand – which is dangerous in its own right.  

It is the responsibility of the safety industry to change this behaviour.  While, of course, hard hats need to be safe, they also need to be comfortable and well-fitting so that people actually want to wear them.

Providing workers with a helmet they can be proud of is important. When a manager provides a workforce with a quality hard hat that has a low-profile and modern design, it represents a certain level of investment in them and their safety.  

Heads come in all shapes and sizes, and workers need the ability to re-size hard hats to a secure and comfortable fit. Customising hard hats with company logos and messaging can also help to foster a sense of pride and belonging to a team.  

MSA understands that hard hat comfort and fit are not nice-to-haves, but essential to safe site operation. MSA Safety is the designer, manufacturer and supplier of industry-leading safety products – including its iconic V-Gard head protection range, used by millions of workers in the toughest environments.  

Visit www.msasafety.com/customhardhats to experience the benefits of hard-hat customisation.

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