How Do You Know What Types Of Safety Training Employees Need?

If you’re not a safety expert, it can be difficult to create a training program that covers all of the safety training needs at your company. The goal of this program is to protect the most important part of your company, your employees. How do you know what safety training employees at your organization need? The short answer is this: it depends on your industry, location, and the hazards present in the workplace. Here’s what you need to do to account for all of those factors and protect your employees:

Learn the regulations

Your organization will be subject to regulations at the federal, state, and local level. Some of these regulations will apply to all workplaces, and some will be industry specific. Ask the following questions as you research applicable safety regulations:

• Which federal regulations or OSHA standards apply to our industry?
• Which federal regulations or OSHA standards apply to the hazards present in our workplace?
• What local regulations apply to our industry or hazards present in our workplace?
• What state regulations apply to our industry or hazards present in our workplace?
• What personal protective equipment (PPE) is required for our processes?
• Have we ever received citations or been in violation of safety regulations? Which ones?
• What environmental regulations apply to our industry and operations?

Learn your organization

If you’ve been tasked with creating a training program, but you don’t work in operations (perhaps you work in management or Human Resources), you may not have a complete understanding of what your company does and how safety training requirements may apply. Go out onto the production floor and talk with employees in all areas of the company to gather information. The answers to the questions below will provide you with some insight on the things employees will need training on.

• What hazards are present in our workplace?
• Do employees work with machinery? Electricity? Radiation? Chemicals?
• What emergency plans does the company have in place for fire? Severe weather? Workplace violence?
• Medical emergencies?
• Do any employees require specialized or job-specific safety training?
• Does our company use any equipment which requires special training?
• Do we have any employees who drive as part of their job responsibilities?
• Which types of accidents or injuries have occurred in our workplace in the past?

Re-evaluate regularly

Things will change within your industry, company, and within legislation, so you’ll need to update your training to accommodate those changes. At any time a new chemical may be introduced into a process, new machinery may be acquired, or laws may be enacted to more strictly control your industry. Set up a schedule to review applicable regulations and current company operational practices to determine if additional training is necessary.

Safety training is an integral part of ensuring employee safety, which is always the top priority, as well as ensuring regulatory compliance. To know the types of training workers in your business will need, be sure to familiarize yourself with regulations at all levels, understand what’s being done within your organization, and review those things regularly for any relevant changes.

eSafety has courses on the important federal safety regulations that apply to your organization. Contact us to find out how our safety training learning management system can provide the right training solution for your company.