Successful safety orientation programs leave nothing to chance. All the safety and health basics new workers need to know from the get-go are included, and no new workers are allowed to fall through the cracks.
Safety orientation programs vary from organization to organization. But all successful programs are formal, required, and include among their core information these 10 “must-haves”:
- Basic safety policies and rules
- Emergency procedures and equipment (evacuation routes, fire alarms, eyewash stations, safety showers, first-aid kits, etc.)
- Job/work area hazards
- Required PPE
- Hazard reporting
- Where to go with questions, problems
- Safety responsibilities
- Required safety training
- Standard safety and health information (safety signs, color-coded warnings, labels, MSDSs, etc.)
- Housekeeping duties
The order in which you present this information will probably depend on the job and the new employee’s prior experience elsewhere. But the first five or six should certainly be discussed during the worker’s first couple of days on the job. Misunderstandings over these issues could get a worker injured or killed his or her first week.
You’ll probably have to revisit some of these issues later in the week. It’s a lot of information for anybody to take in all at once. You want to avoid information overload, because then new workers could just shut down and fail to learn more. So repeat, repeat, repeat until you’re sure they’ve got it.
All the safety training you need for your new hires in one program: 25 subjects, 1 low price. It’s BLR’s Safety Training Presentations. Try it at no cost. Get the details.
And There’s More …
Successful orientation of new employees also requires you to:
- Provide safety orientation for all new hires, even the ones with a lot of prior job experience. Remember, they don’t know your policies, rules, and procedures yet. And what they know and what they’re used to doing might not lead to the kind of safety performance you expect.
- Make expectations clear so that employees realize right from the first day that safety is a number one job priority, that safety performance will be evaluated along with other aspects of job performance, and that those evaluations will affect raises, promotions, and so on.
- Use demonstration and practice to make sure that your new employees understand the correct procedures completely and can perform them flawlessly.
- Provide new workers with a written safety checklist that covers safety rules, procedures, and precautions. Encourage them to post the checklist at their workstation or carry it with them and refer to it as they work.
- Follow up on initial safety orientation by monitoring performance closely and asking and answering a lot of questions during those first few weeks and months to make sure you’ve gotten the safety message across.
Try Safety Training Presentations at no cost and no risk. Find out more.
Safety orientation is just the beginning. It has to be quickly followed up with comprehensive training specific to the safety hazards of the jobs new hires perform.
Safety Training Presentations provides you with 25 core safety presentations that are just perfect for new employee training. Each presentation is responsive to either an OSHA training requirement or to common causes of workplace accidents. All are customizable, so you can add your specific hazards or safety policies.
Each lesson also includes completion certificates, sign-in sheets, evaluation forms, and training records. In short, it contains everything you need to motivate, reinforce, retain, and transfer new knowledge—and document that you did so.
The topics covered include:
–Bloodborne Pathogens
–Back Safety
–Emergency Action
–Ergonomics
–Fire Prevention
–PPE
–Welding/Cutting/Brazing
–Portable Power Tool Safety
–Scaffolds
–Lockout/Tagout
–Forklift Operator Safety
–Confined Space Safety
–Fall Protection
–Respiratory Protection
–and more!
Of course, training needs change as OSHA introduces new requirements or as new work practices and technologies bring new hazards. To cover this, you receive a new CD every 90 days you’re in the program, each containing five additional or updated topics.
Just as important for those on a budget (and who isn’t these days?), the cost of these presentations works out to under $20 each.
We’ve arranged for Advisor subscribers to get a no-cost, no-obligation look at Safety Training Presentations for 30 days. Feel free to try a few lessons with your own trainees. Please let us know, and we’ll be glad to set it up.
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