In this first article of a three-part series, Jarryd Beats, TCIA’s member engagement manager for the Midwest region, shares field-tested strategies for building effective employee safety programs, covering weekly Tailgate Safety meetings, training protocols, and onboarding best practices.

Over the course of 2025, I’ve had the privilege to work directly with several newer TCIA members in the Midwest region to develop or improve their safety programs (policies, procedures, and practices regarding safety and training).

Many were new to the industry too – ranging from companies that were brand new, “doors not even open yet,” to companies still within their first year of tree care operations.

In my experience, this is one of the best times for an organization to join TCIA, mainly because we already have everything a tree care company needs to establish their own high-level safety programs, employee training, and business practices. This saves owners and managers the time and energy required to produce these things themselves, so they can instead focus on the implementation. It also helps eliminate concerns around the compliance of these policies.

Whether I’m working with new or long-time TCIA members, helping them with these critical needs is one of the most rewarding interactions for me personally. I recently helped a tree care company in Illinois with this and seeing them go from having an admittedly almost non-existent safety culture to being a close-knit, safety-conscious team executing top notch training and practices together, made me truly proud of them and everything the owner and their employees worked hard on together.

Of course, building a safety culture starts at the very top, and no company can start or improve anything without leadership (company owners, partners, managers, crew leaders, etc.) making an honest reflection on their strengths and weaknesses and then initiating change, which oftentimes can start by asking for help. And because no two tree care companies are the same, there is no single list of steps set in stone that every company must follow when I help them make the changes they want to see.

So, when I help members, I start by creating a unique plan with them that addresses their wants and needs based on their individual circumstances (capabilities, capacity, scalability, funds, timeline, etc.). That said, I thought it would still be helpful to highlight some of the general steps I’ve recommended to members, which we’ve found to have the greatest positive effect on their overall safety cultures.

Tips for Effective Weekly Tailgate Safety Meetings

One of the best ways a company can start making a big impact is by conducting weekly Tailgate Safety meetings. These are quick and easy, and you can begin doing them at any time of the year. Whether you’re the owner of a small company with only one or two employees, or you’re an operations manager of a large company with several crews, TCIA’s Tailgate Safety Manual comes with everything you need to conduct and document these meetings. There is flexibility intentionally  built into the program, but consider these recommendations:

• Conduct your meetings at least once a week. You can always add targeted meetings if you identify a trend or have a near miss or accident.
• Do them early in the week and early in the day, to start everyone with the proper safety mindset. Tuesday mornings are great, because then you can use Mondays to prepare for your meetings. Plus, no one likes Monday mornings…
• Keep them brief. Meetings should typically be no longer than 15 minutes to maintain everyone’s attention span and reduce the impact on production.
• Our Tailgate Safety Manual includes 100 different sessions with accompanying trainer pages, optional employee handouts and quizzes, and paperwork to properly document your meetings for OSHA and earn industry CEUs.
• Consider adding additional elements to keep your meetings engaging, such as our Accident Briefs, videos or images from our online safety courses, live demonstrations, “guest” speakers, or anything else you want to include. Take ownership of your meetings and your employees will start taking ownership of their safety, too.

In the next blog in this series, I will discuss the steps I typically help members focus on next.

If you currently feel like your organization’s overall safety culture or business operations need improvement (who’s doesn’t?), then I encourage you to take this self-assessment survey to identify how TCIA membership can best help you.

Build a Culture of Safety: TCIA helps tree care companies build a strong safety culture, reduce risks, and protect their workforce through safety courses in the Tree Care Academy, certifications like the Certified Treecare Safety Professional (CTSP) and other resources to create a culture of safety and a safer industry for all. Explore safety resources and certifications.