Protect Your Employees By Investing In Their Safety

Find out how regularly and under what circumstances you should provide health and safety training within your organisation.

Accidents in the workplace are causing 137 fatalities and a cost of £5.3 billion to companies per year, according to Health and Safety Executive. Unfortunately, these stats are often overlooked as organisations want to invest more time in their profit margins rather than in red tape, but it’s important for all employers to remember that these stats are based on hard facts. Lack of investment in health and safety policies can cause serious injury and even death so it’s essential to protect your employees and ensure that they’re fully equipped with information on the best safety approaches in their working environment.

How Frequently Should You Carry Out Health And Safety Training?

This isn’t an easy question to answer, although many workplacescan be considered compliant with health and safety policies if they carry out refresher training annually. However, there are various situations in which an organisation should reassess the frequency of its training.

Internal Events

If an incident occurs internally that affects or threatens the safety of individuals in your organisation, then it may be time for some emergency refresher training. This may be an event that happens to an employee, customer or client. It’s important to remember that even though someone may be self-employed while working on your premises, they would likely still fall under your authority as far as health and safety is concerned. Even if the event is a near miss, it’s essential that you take immediate action to reduce the risk that something similar or worse could happen in the future.

External Events

In all areas of business, it’s important to take note of events within your specific industry. When it comes to health and safety, it’s even more essential to keep abreast of current news. For instance, if there is a pattern emerging with accidents caused by the way in which workers are operating a particular piece of machinery, then this should be addressed immediately. However, when it comes to external activity, it can be tricky to decide how often you should carry out formal refresher trainingas a result of outside developments. Therefore, it is advisable to assess the situation on a case by case basis, but if a death has occurred then it is highly recommended that action is taken.

Change Of Premises

If your organisation has relocated, then it’s important to carry out updated health and safety training because you’ll need to understand how specific policies relate to the change in environment. Similarly, if the equipment your workers are using is updated during the move, then it’s imperative that they’re given training on the new machinery prior to beginning their tasks at the new premises. A Site Management Safety Training Scheme, orSMTSTS training coursemakes sure that employees are well-versed in the Health and Safety at Work Act of 1974 as well as all updated regulations that have been put into place since.  

If you’re in a position of leadership within your organisation, then health and safety is not an area that you should economise on. Your company is only as successful as the employees that work there, so ensure that yours are protected by regularly updating your health and safety training.