A serious injury or death in the workplace can affect your business significantly and alter lives forever. Along with major financial burdens, workplace injuries can pose significant demands on you and your workers. As an employer, it is your responsibility to ensure that each person you employ returns home every day in good health. Creating a healthy and safe work environment is about far more than simply establishing rules, however.
An important component of any comprehensive workplace health and safety program is providing initial as well as ongoing training. The problem that many companies encounter is that they simply do not know where to begin. Once you have answered the question of why you need worksite safety training, you must then move on to determining how you will provide effective training and which topics you should cover.
Online training is often the most effective and cost-efficient method of delivery for many businesses. Regardless of your industry, online training offers a myriad of benefits, including convenience and cost-effectiveness. There is no need to wait until a class is full to train employees. Training can take place at any time, which is a great benefit regardless of whether you need to train new hires or provide refresher training to current employees. Your business can also avoid the need to bring employees in for training, thus slashing travel costs.
The types of courses you include in your company’s worksite safety training can run the gamut, but it should include a few basics to ensure that your employees have a solid grasp of how to stay safe in the workplace.
Work Health and Safety Fundamentals is an excellent example of the type of basic course that should be offered to your employees as part of your workplace health and safety program. This course provides employees with an understanding of health and safety responsibilities in the workplace, including how to reduce the risk for some common workplace hazards.
Office Ergonomics is another course that would be highly suitable for any business, particularly those that employ workers who spend significant amounts of time at their desks. This course was developed with the goal of offering an understanding of how to set up a workspace that is safe, healthy, and productive. Workers will learn about some of the common health risks in the office environment; how to set up computer screens and chairs; how to arrange items on a desk; and how to manage issues resulting from temperature, lighting, and noise. Additionally, the course offers suggestions on how to structure work tasks and breaks to reduce the risk of illness and injury.
Slips and Trips Hazard Guide is a course intended to provide workers with an understanding of the controls that should be used to reduce the risk of slips and trips in the workplace. The course offers information about how to identify slips and trips, including how workers could be exposed to slips and trips in the workplace.
Electrical Risks Hazard Guide is a course that has been designed to provide employees with an understanding of the controls necessary to reduce electrical risks in the workplace. The course provides information about electrical risks, the ways that employees could be exposed to those risks, and the controls needed to reduce the risks.
Manual Handling Hazard Guide is a course targeting any worker who may need to manually handle materials in the workplace. The goal of this course is to provide information about what manual handling is, hazardous activities related to manual handling, and the controls that should be put in place to reduce the risks associated with manual handling.
Education and training are critical tools for keeping workers informed about workplace hazards as well as controls that can be used to boost safety and productivity. With the proper workplace safety and hazard control education program in place, employees will have the knowledge and skills necessary to perform their jobs safely and without putting others at risk. Employees will also gain the information needed to properly identify, report, and control workplace hazards.
All employees should receive a minimum of workplace hazard training; however, additional training might be necessary for some employees based on their role. For this reason, it is important to evaluate your company’s workplace safety and health program on a regular basis to ensure it remains up to date and in compliance.
It should be kept in mind that a formal classroom setting is not always necessary to provide effective education and training. Online training is a convenient way to ensure your employees have a solid understanding of potential workplace hazards and appropriate controls, thus promoting safe work practices.
If you are still considering why you need worksite safety training, remember that all it takes is a single incident at your place of business to create devastating effects on your company as well as everyone whom you employ. One accident in the workplace can be costly to your company while creating a cascading effect that can affect your business for many years to come. It is far better to establish a comprehensive worksite safety training program now and ensure that all of your employees understand how to work safely rather than wait until a tragedy occurs. This type of program will more than pay for the nominal investment by mitigating the possible risks that you might otherwise incur.
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