Sean Dewalt delivers a risk management training segment at Learn to Return in Anchorage.
An effective safety culture for any business has several components. Safety managers and risk professionals generally agree that safety training is a crucial aspect to reducing risk and improving production. Without specific, effective, and personalized training, employees are exposed to an environment without the tools necessary to conduct the tasks in a manner that will keep them from getting injured or worse. Training is more than just checking regulatory boxes- it is a moral obligation to protect the most valuable asset any organization has—the human worker. Safety culture in the workplace should always go beyond enforcing policies and ensuring employees follow protocols. Empowering workers to understand and recognize exposures and dangers in their daily job tasks and to be able to report, correct, and control these hazards is of the utmost importance. Quality training is the baseline for that knowledge set, and there are ways and means to ensure that this information is conveyed and received correctly. Good safety training incorporates an understanding of individual learning styles; the ability to connect and communicate with the participants; informative, current information that is relevant to the workplace; hands-on demonstrations; and ways to ensure that the information has been received and retained.
Have a Written Safety Plan
Every job site in every industry is unique, and the safety training needed to control hazards must be adequately evaluated for exposures that can injure workers. Safety training begins with an assessment of risks employees face on the job, followed by a written safety plan that addresses the means to reduce or eliminate the risks. This is the baseline from which the company safety management program creates the training topics for the subsequent safety training. This process should be completed by personnel most familiar with the entirety of the operations, with input from workers as needed. A proper hazard analysis should include the routine and non-routine tasks performed by workers, equipment used, potential emergency situations, types of communication, external dangers, and emerging risks that could arise. The written plan is developed to create controls for these exposures; careful consideration should be given to evaluate each hazard by considering the likelihood that an event or exposure will occur, the severity of potential outcomes, and the number of workers who might be exposed. Standard operating procedures, job hazards, and job safety analyses should be included in the plan to aid workers in completing tasks in a safe manner each day.
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