In 2019, employers from the private industry reported a whopping 2.8 million work-related injuries. If you think that’s bad, you’d be surprised to learn that it’s actually an improvement from the previous years. It’s safe to say that worker safety is one area that the private sector is still struggling with.
Employees are the backbone of your company, and you can’t do without them. As such, it’s up to you to ensure the health and safety of your employees, regardless of the work environment. An effective and inexpensive way to do so is through employee safety training.
Aside from the usual safety installations and PPE, employee safety training can go a long way in ensuring your workers’ safety. Plus, with modern technology and the internet, it’s now easier than ever to train your employees on safety. The best part is that you won’t even have to spend a lot or any cash to do so.
In this post, we’ll be looking at what employee safety training is, and why it’s so important for businesses. Hopefully, it will be all you need for you to embrace employee safety training in your business.
What Is Employee Safety Training?
Employee safety training is exactly what it sounds like; it’s training your employees on safety in the workplace. It aims to give your workers the knowledge and skills to conduct their work activities safely.
For it to be effective, the training has to be consistent and continual. It’s not a one-time session that just emphasizes on wearing PPEs. It’s a series of guidelines and instructions on how to identify, respond, and report hazards and incidents.
Why Is Employee Safety Training So Important?
You don’t need to have an industrial business for your employees to need safety training. Employee safety training is important for all types of businesses. Here are a couple of reasons why training your employees on safety is so important.
The Law Demands of It
This might come as a surprise to some, but not training your workers on safety is actually illegal. According to the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act., employers must take steps to ensure the health and safety of their workers.
Training employees on safety is one step you can take to be in line with this act of the law. Failing to observe the act or any other safety violation can lead to heavy fines. In severe cases, these violations can even lead to criminal prosecution.
Saves You Money
Workplace injuries, whether fatal or not, are detrimental to the normal operations of the company. Your company loses a lot of time and money when even one employee gets a work-related injury. You stand to lose even much more if the employee in question dies as a result of the accident.
Fortunately, workers’ compensation is mandatory for all employers in the country. This means that your insurance provider will take care of most of your employee’s medical expenses. So paying medical bills is something you don’t have to worry about.
Proper safety training also decreases the likelihood of law-suits that are typically common with work-related injuries or deaths. It’s okay to spend a little money on employee safety training because you’ll save much more in the long run.
Reduces Accidents and Injuries
The most obvious reason for this training is to reduce the occurrence of work-related injuries and accidents. You’d be surprised at how far a little safety training could go in enhancing the safety of your workplace. Workplace training can help mitigate or eliminate anything from minor light work injuries to life-threatening accidents.
No task is too small for a bit of safety training. Even some light-duty work may sometimes lead to the most devastating of accidents. Some light duty work examples may require even more precaution than the heavy-duty stuff.
Increases Productivity
Your business needs to always operate at its optimum to keep up with the competition. That’s not possible when you’re sending someone to the ER every day or week. That’s why it’s so important for businesses to ensure proper employee safety training.
With proper training, you no longer have to worry about absences brought about by illnesses or work-related injuries. This helps keep your workers productive at all times to always keep you on top of the competition.
Creates a Culture of Safety
It’s amazing not to have to remind your employee constantly about taking safety measures. That’s exactly what happens when you consistently and continually train your employees on worker safety. Doing so instills a culture of safety that is just what your business needs.
For your employees, keeping safety measures and maintaining safety practices will be close to nature. This also helps to take a huge load of your supervisors so they can focus on the more important stuff.
Enhances Communication Among Employees
One vital aspect of employee safety communication is improving communication in the workplace. In fact, ineffective communication is one of the major barriers to workplace safety. Proper safety training will help address any communication barrier in the work environment.
Better communication is not only good for workplace safety. It also helps streamline the usual company activities. Improving communication in your company makes for a more productive, efficient, and happier workplace.
You Have Nothing to Lose
It won’t cost your company anything to have a few employee safety training sessions. So you never have to worry about draining your business’s funds. All you need is a projector, a few seats, maybe a whiteboard, and you’re good to go.
This training is super important and won’t cost you a thing. Considering all the benefits of the training, employee safety training is something you don’t want to miss out on.
Safety Training Is a Necessity Not a Luxury
If you truly care about your business and employees, then you need to implement proper employee safety training. Someone in your HR department can handle the training, provided they have enough knowledge. Either that or you can also settle for an expert on worker safety to oversee the entire training.
Worker safety is something any serious business owner can’t afford to overlook. Just like you can’t afford to overlook our other enticing pieces. Be sure to check out other informative reads on the site.
