Why is health and safety training so important?
Over 200 people are killed each year in accidents at work and over one million people are injured. Over two million suffer illnesses caused by, or made worse by, their work. Preventing accidents and ill health caused by work should be a key priority for everyone at work.
Training means helping people to learn how to do something, telling people what they should or should not do, or simply giving them information. Training isn’t just about formal ‘classroom’ courses.
Providing health & safety information and training helps you to:
Ensure you or your employees are not injured or made ill by the work they do;
Develop a positive health & safety culture, where safe & healthy working becomes second nature to everyone;
Find out how you could manage health and safety better;
Meet your legal duty to protect the health & safety of your employees.
Effective training:
Will contribute towards making your employees competent in health & safety;
Can help your business avoid the distress that accidents and ill health cause;
Can help you avoid the financial costs of accidents & occupational ill health, such as damaged products, lost production and demotivated staff.
Don’t forget that your insurance doesn’t cover all losses. Damaged products, lost production and demotivated staff can all result.
The law requires that you provide whatever information, instruction and training is needed to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health & safety of your employees.
Whether you are an employer or self-employed, are you sure that you’re up to date with how to identify the hazards and control the risks from your work? Do you know what you have to do about consulting your employees, or their representatives, on health and safety issues? If not, you would probably benefit from some training.
If you employ managers or supervisors they need to know what you expect from them in terms of health and safety, and how you expect them to deliver. They need to understand your health and safety policy, where they fit in, and how you want health and safety managed. They may also need training in the specific hazards of your processes and how you expect the risks to be controlled.
Everyone who works for you, including self-employed people, needs to know how to work safely and without risks to health. Like your supervisors, they need to know about your health and safety policy, your arrangements for implementing it, and the part they play. They also need to know how they can raise any health and safety concerns with you. Remember, some of these people might not be familiar with your working environment and safety systems that you have put in place for regular employees.
Like many employers, you may not be in a position to provide this training on your own, in which case you will need competent help. Please contact us here to discuss how we can help you and your business fulfil your training requirements.
