Checklists for New Hires – Young and Old Alike

While it may be true that youth is wasted on the young, safety training, as we saw in yesterday’s Advisor, most assuredly is not.

Because of their biological, social, and economic characteristics, young workers are at higher risk of work-related injuries and illnesses. And that puts a premium on efficient and memorable safety training.

But the need for such safety training doesn’t apply only to young workers. With the graying of America, many new hires are veterans of the workforce. But these workers are still new to your workplace — and to its unique hazards and safety procedures – so it is vital that all new hires be promptly trained.

The best strategy is to seize the moment of maximum “trainability” and present your case for safety in the most powerful way you can. BLR’s Safety Audit Checklists recommends that you focus on such elements as:

The purposes and benefits of safety — Make sure employees understand that many laws govern safe work practices. (You could mention the location of the OSHA poster here.) Make sure they know how everyone benefits from maintaining a safe and healthy work environment.

General hazards — Give workers an overview of the most common hazards they may face, and the potential consequence of not taking safety seriously. Try to pick topics that affect large segments of the work population. You don’t have to get into the specifics of every hazard, but make sure employees understand that particular hazards left untreated inevitably lead to accidents and injuries.

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Checklists keep airliners flying. They can keep your safety program up and running, too. See how in BLR’s award-winning Safety Audit Checklists program. Try it at no cost and no risk. Get the full story.

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Job specific hazards — Address the hazards that are specific to each job with appropriate employees. Go over the OSHA standards that are relevant to each work area. Explain and demonstrate appropriate work practices, proper emergency procedures, and the right personal protective equipment they are required to wear.

Accident prevention basics — Stress the need to develop an eye for spotting unsafe conditions and the importance of reporting them immediately. “Don’t take chances” is the message here. You can also emphasize the information, training, and equipment your company provides as part of its commitment to safety.

Emergency procedures — Minimally, employees must know about alarms, the posting of key emergency information, exits, and evacuation procedures.

Remember that new hires are bombarded with new information. But because safety is so essential and work habits so quickly formed, follow-up and reinforcement are especially important.

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Examine BLR’s best-selling Safety Audit Checklists program for 30 days at no cost… not even for return shipping. Get the details

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To help drive home your organization’s safety message, Safety Audit Checklists provides a comprehensive, 30-point New Hire Orientation Checklist – and a 10-question quiz to make sure the message got across. And that’s in addition to the detailed outline excerpted above.

All told, this unique, best-selling program provides you with more than 300 separate safety checklists, keyed to three different criteria:

OSHA compliance checklists, built right off the government standards in such key areas as hazcom, lockout/tagout, electrical safety, and many more. Have your managers complete these lists, and you’ll know exactly what inspectors will be looking for—and you’ll see any issues before they do.

“Plaintiff attorney” checklists, built around those non-OSHA issues that often attract lawsuits. These include workplace stress and violence, alcohol abuse, and insufficient job hazard analysis.

Safety management checklists that monitor the administrative procedures you need to have for topics such as OSHA 300 Log maintenance, training program scheduling and recordkeeping, and OSHA-required employee notifications.

All lists are reproducible. Just make as many copies as needed for all your supervisors and managers, and distribute. What’s more, the entire program is updated annually. You get new or revised checklists automatically as long as you remain in the program. And the cost averages only about $1 a checklist.

If this method to ensuring a safer, more OSHA-compliant workplace interests you, we will be happy to make Safety Audit Checklists available for a no-cost, no-obligation, 30-day evaluation in your office. Just let us know, and we’ll be pleased to arrange it.