Rising recent statistics continue to be alarming as far as workplace injuries and fatalities are concerned. This blog post is aimed at providing some insights and inputs on the important matter of Workplace Safety Training, so that you can take precautionary measures at your work environment for your safety as well as the safety of others. 

Speaking of lives at risk, as an Australian organisation- are you taking workplace safety training seriously?

Here are some facts that should interest you:

• The number of building occupants that know what to do following a fire outbreak is below 50% (Fire & Safety Australia).
• Numerous research demonstrates that if you introduce safety programs to your workplace, they are effective in reducing workplace injuries, illnesses, fatalities, and compensation cost while improving a business’ operating costs (OSHA Injury and Illness Prevention Programs White Paper).
• Most importantly: You are legally responsible as an employer to ensure that your employees are appropriately trained on carrying out their work safely (Safe Work Australia).
  

Safety training isn't something that many small business owners spend a lot of time thinking about. 

For the average worker, such training does not tend to be incredibly frequent or even very extensive. 

That said, there is a lot more to workplace safety than most people are likely to be aware of. This post will focus on the details of health and safety training in the workplace and why it's so important.

What is Workplace Safety Training?

Workplace safety training is a program that is designed to provide workers with skills and knowledge, to perform their tasks and procedures in ways that is safe for them and their colleagues. This also includes specific instructions and guidelines to help them identify, report, and manage hazards and incidents in the workplace.

Why is Workplace Safety Training needed?

The workplace is one of the most important places for workers, which can also become dangerous. Therefore, it is a must that employees should be trained properly in order to prevent accidents at work.

Through workplace safety training, workers can have a better understanding of how their work environment is set up and how they should behave while at work. With this knowledge, workers will feel more responsible in performing their duties and take any safety precautions that will help them avoid accidents while at work. 

Additionally, workplace injury is an obvious threat for employers. If a staff member gets injured, it would impact productivity and might affect the margin of a business operation. Furthermore, if a worker is involved in an accident, it might influence other workers’ and de-motivate people to keep away from an unsafe environment. 

Companies want to avoid being involved in cases that fixate on negligence. It is your obligation as a manager or supervisor to have a safe workplace, which can be achieved with effective workplace safety training. 

Specific benefits includes:

• Leads to reductions in injuries, illnesses and fatalities
• Increased productivity
• It helps improve the morale and job satisfaction among workers
• It lowers the costs of compensations and other liability costs
• Reduce absenteeism and sick leave caused by accidents at work
• It assists in enhancing business brand image and reputation since health and safety is very important to everyone
• Improved business processes, products and services
  

When is Workplace Safety Training required?

Workplace safety training is crucial to companies because oftentimes, workers are unaware of work hazards and how to effectively prevent them. 

All personnel should receive this training to prevent accidents and injuries in the workplace. Whether an employee has been on the job for a couple of weeks or five years, they should receive training. 

By WHS obligations, employers are required to provide workplace safety training:

• To new workers
• To experienced workers assigned to new tasks they have not had previous training in
• To health and safety supervisors
• To workers responsible for completing physically demanding tasks with high risk of injuries and incidents
• To foreign trained workers 
• Following the introduction of new materials, substances, processes, procedures or equipment that can serve as sources of hazards
• Following the identification of new hazards
• Following work-related injuries, illness and incidents
  

How does Workplace Safety Training programs work?

Effective workplace safety training programs share a common approach that focuses on identifying hazards in a work environment, and the development of actions to prevent and control these hazards. 

Important components of a workplace safety training program:

• Management leadership and commitment
• Effective workers participation
• Practical knowledge and effective dissemination channel
• Hazard identification and assessment
• Hazard prevention and control
• Continuous evaluation and upgrade of training program
  

Without the features mentioned above, a training program will fail in achieving the desired result.

*Important Notes:

These various elements are not to be treated as standalone. They are interrelated and interdependent. There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to workplace safety training. Employers should adapt these components to their business needs, industry requirements and operation effectiveness. 

The main safety training areas:

General health and safety training

This includes:

• Induction training;
• Emergency response and procedure
• Equipment handling training
• The use of personal protective equipment (PPE)
• Incident reporting procedure
• Hazardous material handling
  

Specialised training for certain jobs/tasks/roles

For example, workers working with asbestos or in confined spaces would receive specific training to help them understand the safe ways of operating in such an environment. Another similar one is fatigue management training and safety training for supervisors.

Safety information and instructions

As part of an employer’s duty of care to provide a workplace environment that is safe and healthy for workers and persons that could be affected, information and instructions needs to be passed on to workers, contractors or the general public.

Examples include:

• Housekeeping procedures
• Workplace conduct and appearance/dressing
• Safe work processes and procedures
• Emergency action 
• Responsibilities and obligation of individuals in ensuring workplace health and safety.
  

Creating an effective Workplace Safety Training

Looking for an easy way to create a workplace safety training program that would be effective and adapted to your needs? 

Although there are a host of factors that contribute to successful safety training, it is important that safety training is done in a way that employees are actually able to retain the knowledge. Otherwise, the training becomes a waste of time and money.

In the past, safety training was a one-time event. But in today’s workplace, where changes happen quickly and accidents can happen any time - effective safety training should be an ongoing process.

KiriAlign can provide all the help you need in one centralised platform. 

Designed to help you improve WHS compliance, reduce risk, and save valuable time, Kiri Align is an online-based system that enables organisations to effectively manage workplace safety training programs while bringing significant efficiency gains with in-built unique dynamic forms and checklists for all WHS management and operational training needs. These forms and checklists are automatically aligned with your organisation’s WHS policies, standards, and guidelines.

With this tool, employees are empowered to self-record their WHS activities, process online safety requests, heighten engagement, promote a ‘beyond compliance’ culture and reduce the workload of HR. And that’s just some of the ways Kiri Align helps pave the way toward compliance and protect your business from lawsuits.

Unique features include form creation and templates via the drag-and-drop interface; multiple sign-in methods; video resources to enhance all training content delivery; reports – overall status on key deliverables via the “dashboard” with regular updates from users in real time. And they are automatically updated across all your devices – including mobile phones! 

Life’s too short to gather all your workplace’s training requirements in spreadsheets.  Why waste time and risk costly outcomes by developing training programs manually? All major complexity removed - Kiri Align is one of the few workplace safety training solutions that can be customised by you for your exact needs. That’s why it is so great: you get to create a powerfully effective workplace safety training system that works for you at a fraction of the cost!

Free Workplace Safety Training Tips

1. Do not assume a worker can do their job safely. Ensure they have been trained to do so
2. Training modules and scope should be centred around workplace incidents, identified hazards, risk mitigation strategies, and workers input
3. Provide adequate supervision during and after training to measure effectiveness
4. It is also important to consider differently abled people in workplace safety and training programs

Take advantage of the time-tested capabilities of Kirialign for effective WHS management and to create a future-proof workplace safety training program