rss
0

The Facts about Safety Induction

Induction training is a key element to the OHS policy and framework within any enterprise. Any business that does not conduct OHS training as part of an induction program has effectively failed to meet its OHS obligations under the law of the state within which it operates. The induction should form part of the suite of safety systems like policy manuals and safety procedures that the company complies with and endorses.

Read on to learn great ideas you can put to use right away developing your own induction policy:

Take into account adult learning issues. Different people learn in different ways, so when presenting essential information to people, written material can reinforce or back up verbal material. For even greater impact provide pictures – you remember the old saying ‘… worth a thousand words”.

Build into your induction some feedback or testing mechanisms to ensure people have understood key information where possible. Provide opportunities for people to ask questions and seek further information.

Ensure that attendees at inductions ‘sign-off’ to the fact that they have received the induction. This is in case if something happens later you will  be able to show a Court or Tribunal proof that the person was provided with training and induction.

Where possible, safety instructions or policies should be illustrated with examples. Talking about policies is much less effective than a situation where new staff can be given examples of actual scenarios illustrating those principles. An even better model is to allow the inductees to provide their own examples. In this way they show they can relate the ‘principles’ to their everyday work situation.

Showing employees how machine guards and evacuation procedures work is better than just telling them they exist. Physically showing employees the actual location of no-go zones and where fire fighting equipment is located is better than showing them a map marked with locations.

Regularly review OHS incidents and assess whether the incident shows that there might have been a gap in the induction.

Ensure induction processes are reviewed regularly when changes occur in the workplace or to legislation.

Bench test inductions with long term employees to assess if things might be done better. This is process is so desperately important – you will find that time has allowed improvements to processes and systems and these need to be discovered.

Put in place a follow-up process that allows the organization to ensure that inductees have received and understood the training, and their obligations.

About the Author

Safety Concepts is an online resource providing up to date insights and covering issues in the field of Workplace Safety.

Leave a Reply




If you want a picture to show with your comment, go get a Gravatar.

*