According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), 40 percent of injured employees have been on the job less than a year. Farmers Insurance Group says that more than half of new workers injured were employed for less than a month, and one of every eight injuries occurred on the first day of work.
If you agree that these statistics are unacceptable, you must also agree that safety orientation is one of the first and best opportunities for you to communicate your commitment to employee protection and get employees thinking about safety first from Day 1.
Safety orientation is something you want to plan carefully and execute effectively. Decide what messages you want new employees to take away. Then build content accordingly.
The most effective and cost-efficient way to provide safety training to your workforce—Try a demo of BLR’s remarkable TrainingToday at no cost or obligation.
Recommended topics include:
- Company safety policies and work rules
- General hazards in the work area
- Specific hazards involved in each task the employee performs
- Hazards associated with other areas of the facility
- Safe work practices and procedures
- Location of emergency equipment (fire extinguishers, eyewash stations, first-aid supplies, etc.)
- Smoking regulations
- Emergency evacuation procedures and routes
- Who to talk to regarding safety concerns and questions
- Steps to take in case of an accident or near miss
- Reporting procedures
- Selection, use, and care of PPE
- Safe use of tools and equipment
- Safe lifting techniques and material handling procedures
- Proper handling, use, and storage of hazardous chemicals and location of SDSs
Some employers use a safety orientation checklist to ensure that all relevant topics have been covered. The checklist should be signed by participating employees and maintained in personnel files.
Other companies like to be up-front with new hires about the costs associated with various types of accidents.
Still others bring in an employee who sustained an injury to talk about what happened and its effect on the worker and his or her family.
Whichever strategies you employ, be sure to make periodic ”knowledge checks” during safety orientation to ensure new workers are getting the messages you want to communicate and understanding and assimilating the information they are being provided with.
Try a demo of BLR’s remarkable award-winning Training Today at no cost or obligation. Includes the Workplace Safety library. Get the details.
Are you looking for safety training material on dozens of critical safety topics to prepare your new employees to work safely on the job? Topics such as:
- Back Safety
- Bloodborne Pathogens
- Permit-Required Confined Spaces
- Substance Abuse in the Workplace
- Exit Routes
- Fall Protection
- Forklifts
- Lockout/Tagout
- PPE
- SDSs
- Slips and Falls
- Violence in the Workplace
Look no further than the Workplace Safety Library on BLR’s TrainingToday®.
Train for Compliance—and for Safety’s Sake
Unlike many training solutions available on the market today, TrainingToday courses are routinely reviewed and updated to reflect changes in federal regulations or best practices. Each training course is developed by BLR® lawyers, industry experts, and instructional designers who have experience across a wealth of industries, topics, and compliance areas.
Courses keep participants interested with engaging audio, built-in exercises, and key points to remember. At the completion of every course, individuals take a quiz designed to test for competency in all the course material presented. Quiz results and course completion times are automatically recorded.
Every course can be tailored with supporting and custom documents. BLR provides supporting documents for courses that include complete speaker notes and the answer key for the included quiz. As the administrator, you have the option of displaying uploaded documents and requiring review before the session begins. This is especially useful for company policies or worksite-specific information. Supporting materials can be added, edited, or removed at any time.
With only a few minutes’ setup, your company will have a complete Web-based training program with professionally developed courses, employee testing capabilities, and systematic documentation of employee training sessions and scores. And remember, BLR TrainingToday courses can be delivered at individual employee desks, in computer centers, at training kiosks, or even in a classroom.
No wonder BLR’s TrainingToday was named “Best Workforce Training Solution” by the Software Information Industry Association. It can help you launch a cost-effective and successful employee training program.
We urge you to sign up for a no-obligation demo by visiting the award-winning TrainingToday. Or, feel free to call our Customer Service people toll-free at 866-696-4827.