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Providing Comprehensive Safety Training—Great Idea! And Cost-Effective, Too

Yesterday, we recounted the story of an employer found liable for failure to provide required safety training. Today, we tell the tale of an employer that escaped a similar fate by providing excellent training. When the painting company got the contract to paint a highway bridge, scaffolds were suspended from horizontal cables fastened to the […]

’Tis the Season to Give Safe Gifts

December is Safe Toys and Gifts Month. Take time for a seasonal training session this month on the off-the-job subject of helping employees buy safe toys and gifts for their children. In a quick 15 minutes, you can give them good tips that can potentially save your workplace from time off taken by parents whose […]

Top 10 Electrical Safety Tips

Manage electrical hazards successfully with these 10 tips for keeping workers safe from shocks, burns, and electrocution. Jim White, training director for Shermco Industries, Inc., a Dallas-based electrical power systems test and maintenance company, has developed a list of 10 electrical safety tips for keeping workers safe. 1. Develop a zero-tolerance policy toward energized work. […]

Take a Mini Tour of OSHA’s Electrical Safe Work Practice Rules

When it comes to electrical safe work practices, its 1910.333 you want to examine closely. Here’s a mini tour of the requirements.< OSHA requires your employees to use safety work practices to prevent electric shock or other injuries resulting from either direct or indirect electrical contacts when work is performed near or on equipment or […]

How Cold is Too Cold?

With winter just around the corner, many employers will be thinking about how to keep employees healthy in the cold. According to OSHA, cold stress can occur when the body is unable to warm itself. This can lead to tissue damage and possibly death. Four factors contribute to cold stress: Cold air temperatures High wind […]

Don’t Wait Till You’re Up to You Knees in Snow to Plan for Safe Snow Removal

Snow will soon be falling in many parts of the country. Time to get out the shovel or fire up the snow blower. Just don’t forget about safety. With winter less than a month away, in many parts of the country it’s time (or maybe already passed time) to start preparing for snow removal. If […]

The ABCs of Behavior-Based Learning

The ABC model is a way to evaluate behaviors in order to determine why employees choose to act or behave in a certain way. The model looks at Antecedents, Behaviors, and Consequences. To conduct an ABC analysis, you, as supervisor, need to: Describe the observed problem behavior (i.e., not wearing required personal protective equipment (PPE)) […]

Failure to Provide Required Training—Big Mistake! Here’s Why

Read a dramatized account of a real case in which a court found an employer and supervisor guilty of negligence for failure to provide OSHA-required training. A new employee—we’ll call him Steve—had no experience or prior training operating a forklift. Nevertheless, on his first day in a new job, he was assigned to drive a […]

Rethinking Workplace Housekeeping: From Chore to Opportunity

How many accidents in your workplace are caused simply because employees’ housekeeping efforts are sloppy and inadequate? Probably more than you think. Good housekeeping in the workplace is tremendously important. In a way it underlies all your other safety efforts, because if your workplace isn’t clean, well organized, and well maintained, it isn’t safe and […]

What’s the Scoop on Pigeon Poop?

Workers need PPE to protect against all kinds of hazards. Of course, your employees probably don’t need protection against pigeon poop. But since you never know… A visitor to Safety.BLR.com recently posed an intriguing question in our “Ask the Expert” feature. It went like this: City employees need to access a confined space in a […]