Health and Safety Training

Health and Safety Training - Advice on How To Proceed

As well as providing training specifically relating to fire safety, legislation also requires that you provide sufficient training to ensure that you and your staff are capable of identifying hazards and controlling risks in your place of work. The Health and Safety At Work Act 1974 places a requirement on you to provide whatever instruction and information is necessary to ensure the health and safety of your employees.

In addition to this, the Management Of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 specifies certain situations where training is particularly important, such as at the beginning of employment and when there are changes to duties or work. It is the employer's responsibility to bear the cost of this training, and provide it during work hours.

The Health and Safety Executive advise a five step approach to health and safety training:

Health and Safety Training - Decide What Training is Required

What skills and knowledge do people need in order to carry out their jobs safely?
Identify the gaps between the skills and knowledge people need, and where they are now
Check whether your Risk Assessments identify any hazards where health and safety training is a factor in reducing the risks
Don't forget the top of your organisation - do senior staff require training in health and safety awareness or managing health and safety?
Check through your Accident/Incident records to identify occurrences or near-misses where training may reduce the chances of it reoccurring
Consult with your staff on what they feel their needs are in respect of health and safety training

Health and Safety Training - What Are Your Training Priorities?

Your top priorities will be anything you are required by law to carry out
When prioritising, consider where the most serious consequences are likely to be if adequate health and safety training is not carried out
Prioritise health and safety training that is likely to benefit large numbers of your team
New members of staff and those undergoing changes in duties should also be a priority

Health and Safety Training - Select Method of Implementation

Don't automatically assume you need to put people on external training courses, much of what needs doing could probably be carried out in house.
Consider on-the-job coaching, in-house groups sessions, distance learning, use of training DVDs, etc
There are a wealth of health and safety consultants who will be happy to help with your training needs, but also consider other possibilities such as trade unions, further education establishments, chambers of commerce, professional bodies and associations, Sector Skills Councils and the UK Commission for Employment and Skills

Health and Safety Training - Delivering the Training

Ensure sufficient time is given to the training and that people can not be called away on other business - don’t rush it
If you are doing the training in-house, give sufficient time to the person carrying out the training to ensure they are fully prepared and comfortable beforehand
Ensure that the presentation of information is easy to understand, and avoid lengthy lectures - vary the training methods and involve people in the process

Health and Safety Training - Review - Did The Training Work?

Carry out basic evaluation on all training provided - did the methods work or could improvements be made?
Seek feedback from line managers and staff who have been through the training
Has the training actually made a difference in the workplace - are people working in the ways they have been trained?
Do staff know what is required of them and have they now got the skills they need to work safely?
Make sure you keep records of all training delivered

Health and Safety Training is worth getting right. Not only do you have a legal duty to provide it, but you have a vested interest in creating a place of work where a culture of healthy working is second nature. Every year over 200 people are killed in work related accidents and over a million more are injured. The avoidance of the distress and disruption that such accidents and illness causes has got to be worth a bit of time and effort.