Well-trained employees are safe employees—especially when they are facing a major hazard like accidental equipment start up. Make sure your workers understand and practice lockout/tagout (LO/TO) rules.
Preventing LO/TO accidents begins with training three groups of employees:
Authorized employees generally include your electricians, maintenance personnel, and some machine operators. These workers are the only ones allowed by OSHA to perform lockout/tagout. They must be trained to understand how machinery is powered and to recognize hazardous energy sources. They also need to learn how to isolate and control that energy by implementing your LO/TO procedures.- Affected employees are those who work with machines but aren’t authorized to perform lockout/tagout. This group is predominantly made up of machine operators and helpers. These workers must understand the purpose and use of lockout/tagout. They must also clearly understand that any repairs or maintenance on their equipment cannot be performed until it has been properly locked and tagged out. And they need to know that they are not to interfere with LO/TO procedures—for example, by removing a lock or tag from an energy source.
- Other employees include anyone who works in an area where LO/TO procedures are used. These workers must understand the purpose of energy control procedures and the importance of not trying to operate locked or tagged out machinery or to interfere with locks or tags.
Think you have no time to train? Think again. BLR’s 7-Minute Safety Trainer helps you fulfill key OSHA-required training tasks in as little as 7 minutes. Try it at no cost and see!
Retraining
In addition to initial LO/TO training, OSHA also spells out a number of situations that call for retraining.
You have to retrain authorized and affected employees when:
Their job assignments change- A change in machines, equipment, or processes creates a new hazard
- Energy control procedures change<.
- Periodic inspection or observation indicates that an employee isn’t following, or doesn’t fully understand, energy control procedures
Once employees have been retrained, they must:
Understand the new or revised energy control situations, methods, and procedures.- Demonstrate that they understand energy control procedures and their responsibilities as authorized or affected employees.
Recordkeeping
All initial training and retraining must be backed up by records. These records should certify that employees have been trained and include the names of employees trained as well as the date(s) on which training took place and the names of trainers.
Can you picture safety training in effective, 7-minute sessions? Get the details.
Ready for LO/TO Training?
You are if you have BLR’s 7-Minute Safety Trainer sessions “What Is Lockout/Tagout?” and "Preparing for and Performing LO/TO Shutdown." These sessions provide you with training materials for all three groups of employees that must be trained. The sessions come with everything you need to get your points across quickly and cost-effectively, including a detailed trainer’s outline, an illustrated handout, and a 10-question quiz with answers.
And that’s just the beginning. All told, this "trainer’s bible" contains 50 prewritten meetings covering almost every aspect of safety you’d want or need to train on, in a format designed to be taught in as little as 7 minutes. Major topics include:
Confined spaces- Electrical safety
- Fire safety and emergency response
- HazCom
- Machine guarding and lockout/tagout
- Material handling
- PPE use and care
- Housekeeping/slips, trips, and falls
- and dozens more
Just make as many copies as you need of the included handouts and quizzes, and you’re ready to train.
Equally important is that the program ships new and updated meetings every quarter to respond to new and changed regulations. This service is included in the program price, which averages just over $1 a working day. In fact, this is one of BLR’s most popular safety programs.
If you’d like to personally evaluate 7-Minute Safety Trainer and see how it can build safety awareness, we’ll be happy to send it to you for 30 days on a no-cost, no-obligation trial basis. Just let us know and we’ll arrange it.
Other Recent Articles on Training
How Often Do I Need To Train?
Asbestos? Is That Still an Issue?
Safe or Sorry? Which Will Your Confined Spaces Entrants Be?
Don’t You Just Hate Repeats?