Safety
Training Opportunities
Safety training is the most important step you can
take to limit employee accidents, which continue to occur at an alarming rate.
In 2003, 4.4 million injuries occurred among private sector firms, with 5,559
fatalities. And the question remains: how many of these injuries and fatalities
could have been prevented with better safety training?
Safety training teaches your employees the skills they need
to perform their jobs safely while following OSHA and other regulations that
protect them. Complying with the regulations doesn’t just protect your
employees, it protects you from inspections and fines for non-compliance that
are very costly.
Safety Training for Every
Industry
Every industry has its own safety training issues, and every
job its own safety requirements. One of the most dangerous jobs that requires
the most rigorous safety training is forklift operation. Forklift safety
training courses concentrate on everything from pre-use inspection (check
everything from the battery to the tires) to the rules of the road (sound your
horn at blind corners and maintain a safe distance from other vehicles and
pedestrians).
After a forklift operator learns this important safety
information, he must demonstrate the skills he’s learned by operating a
forklift efficiently in the presence of an evaluator. Only by completing both
parts of the training can he become a certified forklift driver, in accordance
with the OSHA standards.
As you can see from the forklift example, safety training
is extensive and sometimes complex. But it serves its purpose by training
forklift operators to operate their vehicles efficiently and avoid accidents.
Every year, tens of thousands of injuries and over 100 fatalities occur from
overturns and other forklift accidents, but forklift training prevents
thousands of additional injuries that would have occurred to untrained drivers.
Every industry has explicit requirements employees must
follow, with other regulations for employers. For instance, employers must
complete entry permits before workers enter confined spaces and they must train
their employees to follow them to avoid injury and stay safe.
How to Select the Best Safety Training Materials
After you’ve determined the training your organization
needs, you must choose the training materials you will use to accomplish it.
There’s no shortage of vendors, but the best ones provide first-rate content in
a variety of formats to accommodate your delivery needs. It’s easy to purchase
a safety training video, but not every company wants to devote the time
to playing it for every employee. Companies that offer online training give
employees the opportunity to train at their leisure while companies can deliver
individualized training to employees at any location.
As you can see, there are two keys to selecting the best safety
training programs: content and format. Make sure you find a vendor that
offers the latest programs with up-to-the-minute content on the issues that
impact your employees in the formats that meet the delivery style of your
entire organization. You’ll get safety training that protects your
employees from on-the-job hazards and trains them to follow the OSHA standards
to keep you in compliance.
