If you’re employing teen workers this summer or perhaps taking on some recent high school grads full time, make sure they stay safe on the job.
Every 5 days a teen worker is killed on the job, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and more than 200,000 are injured annually, which is 2 to 3 times more than any other age category. Furthermore:
- In 1 recent year, about 2.3 million teens aged 15 to 17 worked in the United States.
- In that year, thousands of teens suffered on-the-job injuries serious enough to send them to the hospital. Most of these types of injuries occur within the first 12 months of employment.
- In that year, 34 youths under the age of 18 died from work-related injuries.
So, whether they’re full-time or just summer help, teen workers need plenty of training right from Day 1 to prevent accidents and injuries.
Think you have no time to train? Think again. BLR’s 7-Minute Safety Trainer helps you fulfill key OSHA-required training tasks in as little as 7 minutes. Try it at no cost and see!
Follow these tips from OSHA for protecting teen workers:
Teach young workers how to safely do the job. Train young workers to recognize hazards and use safe work practices. Training should include all the information needed to safely perform the job and prevent accidents. Training should also help young workers develop good safety habits and judgment.
Stress safety with supervisors. Supervisors are the ones who work most closely with young workers and have the greatest opportunity to influence their work habits. They should monitor teen workers closely and work with them to ensure that they understand hazards and precautions. Supervisors should be especially aware of any risk-taking behavior among young workers.
Implement a mentor or buddy system for new young workers. Have an experienced older worker buddy with a teen worker to answer questions and help the inexperienced worker learn the new job.
Encourage young workers to ask questions. Young workers might be reluctant to speak up, fearful of looking dumb. Assure them there are no “stupid” questions about safety, and encourage them to ask about tasks or procedures that are unclear or hazards they do not understand.
Focus on communication. Communicating effectively with young workers may require a different approach from what you use for communicating with older workers. OSHA reminds you to be mindful of the “unique aspects” of communicating with young workers. Speak to them in a manner commensurate with their level of maturity and experience.
Ensure that equipment operated by young workers is both legal and safe for them to use. Tell young workers which equipment they are allowed to use and which they are not allowed to operate. Clearly label equipment young workers are not allowed to operate.
Provide required personal protective equipment (PPE). Explain why specific PPE is needed, and train teen workers to use it properly. Then monitor to make sure they use it.
Effective, 7-minute sessions provide comprehensive safety training at an average cost of $1 a day. Get the details.
In tomorrow’s Advisor, we’ll get more teen training tips from safety experts, plus we’ll present a dynamic, fast-paced resource for training workers of all ages on key safety topics in 7 minutes flat.