Contact: Mindy Carrothers (303.361.4790, mindy.carrothers@pinnacol.com)
The Importance of Effective Safety Training
Effective safety training is one of the most important elements of your safety program. Without it, your employees can learn behaviors that keep them from performing their jobs correctly. Conducting effective safety training means that your employees are trained to do their job in the correct way, which means the safe way.
There are many benefits to providing effective safety training to your workforce. It creates a culture of safety within your organization which helps to establish desired behaviors and attitudes, teaches proper work practices, encourages safe behaviors while maintaining efficiency and productivity, reinforces these behaviors over time and works to eliminate preventable and costly accidents. When employees have the right materials and equipment to do their job correctly and safely, and know that employers are concerned about their well-being, then employees are more engaged in their jobs. This results in increased productivity and better quality work.
How can you ensure that your safety training is effective? Even though this may be challenging, you can make your safety training program more impactful by following a few of Pinnacol’s guidelines and recommendations:
1. Identify when training is the best option to eliminate or minimize the risk of injury. Sometimes other safety and prevention measures are a better choice. For example, if you can eliminate the hazard completely, or put engineering controls in place to minimize risk, that may be your best option.
2. Determine which type of training is most beneficial to your employees. Choose between job-task training and safety awareness training depending on whether your employees need specific or general information. Both types of training are important in establishing a safety culture and equipping employees with the knowledge and skills necessary to work safety and efficiently.
3. Prepare for training and reinforce learning by understanding employees current challenges so you can design and deliver training in a way that mitigates obstacles from the start.
4. Present information in a way that your employees can relate to so they are more likely to retain it.
5. Use organization-specific data that includes accident losses and trends, industry requirements and employee input to identify training content.
6. Tailor content and delivery so the information is appropriate based on the audience needs.
Taking the time to make sure your safety training is effective ensures that your employees have the right knowledge to do their jobs correctly, which means they are doing their jobs safely. As employees become more skilled at their jobs, injuries and claims should decrease. Setting the
June 2014 tone for a safe environment in the workplace lets your employees know that you care about protecting them – and as you protect your employees, you also protect your business.
For more detailed information and other effective safety training tips, visit the Training page on Pinnacol.com or contact Pinnacol’s Safety On Call Hotline at 303.361.4700 or 888.501.4752.
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If you are interested in joining our ASA Colorado Pinnacol Safety Group, learn more here: http://www.asacolorado.org/memberProgram.cfm
