by Robert Campbell
Industrial Hygienist
In today’s workplace, safety and compliance training is more important than ever. Having a comprehensive program in place is essential to protecting your employees and customers as well as your business. Safety training and compliance can help reduce workplace accidents and injuries, protect the environment and prevent legal liabilities. In order to accomplish this, EI recommends using the “Triple T” method when developing training: Tailored, Transparent and Timely.
Tailored
Safety training must be tailored to the specific industry and workplace environment. It should cover the basics of safety such as personal protective equipment, hazard recognition and emergency response procedures as well as include other topics such as workplace policies and procedures, accident investigation and recordkeeping. Safety and compliance training should involve a mix of classroom instruction, hands-on activities and interactive presentations which are tailored to the companies’ specific needs and concerns. Allowing employees the opportunity to ask questions, practice scenarios, and receive feedback specific to the industry and jobsite locations is vital in addition to providing them with written materials they can refer to when needed.
Transparent
Compliance training helps ensure employees understand the regulations and laws applicable to the workplace. It should cover topics such as workplace safety regulations, environmental regulations, labor laws and workplace discrimination laws.
Ensuring all employees and the company itself follow local and Federal laws prevents fines and penalties that can be imposed by disobeying those laws. Compliance training helps educate employees and can prevent accidents, injury and even ethical and harassment issues. This will result in a better work environment for employees overall and a lower turnover rate, thus maintaining the company’s reputation and preventing monetary loss.
Timely
Finally, safety and compliance training should be provided on a regular basis to ensure employees are aware of the latest regulations and policies that could affect them. Having a comprehensive program in place will help create a safe and productive workplace free from safety and compliance issues.
Developing training using “real world” examples that may have occurred within the industry helps employees recognize and respond to compliance issues and in some cases, prevent them from happening.
In a nutshell, safety and compliance training is used to reduce risks and ensure companies follow the rules that apply to them. There is a large number of regulatory agencies (I refer to them as the “Alphabet Soup Agencies” ie. AHERA, OHSA, the EPA and many MANY more.) By using the recommended “Triple T” methods there should be fewer mistakes and therefore fewer accidents.
How Can We Help?
Should you have any questions regarding industrial hygiene as well as safety and compliance or are looking to schedule a training course, please contact Robert Campbell at (919) 316-8560 or rcampbell@ei1.com.