Health and safety are extremely important considerations for organizations. When employees work at an organization for 8 or more hours, it is the organization’s responsibility to take care of them. An employee’s health can be affected by various factors, such as stress, poor hygiene in the workplace, or poor quality of drinking water, not to mention potential hazards posed by chemicals, electricity, and heat.
Because organizations are responsible for health and safety, they should take every measure to make the workplace safe. One of the most important measures is training.
How Can Training Help Improve Health and Safety?
When employees attend workplace safety training courses, it helps improve health and safety within the organization. This is how organizations benefit:
- Training helps employees understand the importance of following safety precautions. Many people believe safety norms like wearing gloves and masks are irritants, but when they realize that failure to follow precautions can affect their health, they will understand their importance. Training thus helps to create awareness of protocols and procedures and can directly improve safety in the organization.
- Training on how to effectively implement safety measures can be provided specifically for supervisors, who can have a direct impact on how these measures are effectively implemented in the organization.
- Regular training courses and training refreshers ensure that employees do not forget about the importance of health and safety. It is helpful to update employees with details of new procedures and industry practices, and, most importantly, it provides a forum for employees to share their experiences while following safety norms. This will be a learning experience for all training participants.
- Finally, conducting regular employee training enables organizations to comply with federal and state occupational health and safety rules. Not only does this prevent costly fines and enforcement actions, but it also aids in preventing worker injuries, lost days of work, and workers’ compensation claims.
Choosing the Right Training Course
There are different ways training courses can be conducted. Classroom training is one method, but although it can be effective, it can disrupt productivity if all employees need to receive instruction. Organizations with multiple branches may need to bring employees to one place, which entails logistics effort and costs. One potential solution to address this issue is online training. This type of training is beneficial because employees can undergo training at their convenience, and it does not affect regular work.
It is important to note, however, that most job-related safety training mandated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires site-specific and hands-on elements, in addition to online training. Be sure to check the safety regulatory requirements surrounding your industry first to understand how you can make online learning a part of your training program.
When an organization wants to train employees online regarding workplace safety and health, it can partner with an online portal that has a vast selection of courses. An online training solution with experienced course providers offers training that is suitable to different kinds of organizations, and the following explains how an organization can choose any of the best online safety training courses:
- It is important to select an online course provider that has experience working with corporate organizations. Such providers would understand companies’ requirements, and their courses would meet those requirements.
- The details of the courses on the website must be verified. The program objectives, duration/modules, profile of the trainer and his or her experience, rating of the course by other participants, and price are all factors that should be investigated before choosing the course.
- Some training courses that can be considered are:
- General programs on health and safety that provide employees with an overview of workplace requirements;
- Fire prevention training;
- Exercise and nutrition information for health improvement; and
- Occupational health and safety training as required by law.
Follow these guidelines to select an online training provider and courses for employees; workers can then be encouraged to take the online training courses and complete them. This training will be interesting for employees; they can do it at their own pace, and they will learn important safety concepts. Organizations also benefit, as they have the opportunity to both save money and promote a safe workplace.
 Marilou Alcaide is Content Coordinator at Coggno Inc., a learning management system for employees and students. She has a keen desire to create appealing content to engage readers all around the world. You can connect with Coggno via Facebook and Twitter. |