8 Ways To Train Your Staff In Health & Safety

To some business owners, employee training is but an extraneous cost. For some areas of training, this is true, but for others, it’s definitely not.

Health and safety is one such area, and it’s one that’s frequently neglected. There are too many workplaces that think a simple first aid kit constitutes ‘training,’ but they’re wrong. It’s much more in-depth than you’d think.

As an employer, it’s up to you to make sure health and safety standards are up to scratch. If your business is customer-facing, it’s even more important. So without further ado,  let’s take a look at some of the ways to ensure your staff are properly honed.

Employee Exchange

A lot of companies make use of employee exchange programs, and they’re becoming increasingly more common. An employee exchange program is a way for your staff members to gain new working experiences and skills.

This means that by shipping them off to a company that’s known for its health and safety standards, your employee can pick up valuable insight. Or, they could pick up some health and safety tips that you hadn’t thought of. Either way, it’s worth considering.

Accredited Courses

Accredited courses are a way to coach multiple employees at once. In particular, a health and safety course can teach them how to prevent a wide variety of workplace accidents. These courses are incredibly common through providers like Plansafe, so have a look at your options.

Drills

Sometimes, the only way to learn something is to physically do it. Health and safety drills in your own workplace put your staff members in the exact situations they’re training to defend. This could be as basic as a fire drill, or as complex as saving someone from a piece of machinery. All under strict test conditions, of course.

Let Your Building Do The Training

By placing down markings, protective covers and gates, you reduce the risk of accidents even happening. Plus, you make it easier for your staff to look after themselves. Training by proxy!

Provide An Accident History Booklet

This allows your employees to read details of any previous accidents, so they can learn from those mistakes. Did something happen with a certain piece of equipment, or in a certain area? By providing this information, you make the same accidents less likely to happen.

Online Simulations And Tests

While by no means representative of real-world situations, free quizzes and tests can offer you some quite handy tips. Most of them will throw multiple health and safety questions and scenarios at you, which can test employee knowledge at a fast pace.

Offload Training Responsibilities

This means that you should hand the responsibility of staff training over to a single person you trust. This means things won’t get complicated, and it’s easier for one person to measure progress than several.

Write A Training Manual/Handbook

And finally, you could opt to produce a training manual. This should be thorough, and should have an area at the end for a signature. This lets you know that the staff member has read it. Manuals should be workplace-specific, and avoid being too general. Your own work environment is a different beast from the others out there, and must be treated individually.