How to Develop and Conduct a Safety Training
- 1). Meet with the human resources director to review current safety procedures. Dust off the safety procedures manual and review each step with the human resources director. Determine if the procedure is applicable to your workplace and if it aids in preventing injury.
Review past injury records to look for trends. Determine if there is a pattern of the same injury occurring more than once and what was done to remedy the situation. Look for injuries that are not covered in the safety procedures manual and if so, note which injuries occurred and how they could be prevented in the future. - 2). Refer to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) website for the latest regulations and standards on industry-based safety procedures. Some industries have different requirements--for example, the construction industry has mandates on occupational health and environmental controls.
- 3). Establish a safety committee to create a training program and perform ongoing spot checks. Ask for one volunteer employee from each department to become a member of the company safety committee. Furnish members with a copy of the current safety manual and your OSHA and internal reporting research.
Charge the committee with developing a new safety manual that includes current policies and procedures, as well as new hazard prevention. Ask each member to look within his department for potential problems that aren't addressed in the current manual. Request that each member research and develop a safety procedure to remedy the hazard and present it to the committee. Ask employees to discuss their procedure with the human resources director and refer to the OSHA website before presenting it to the group.
Use the committee's collaborative efforts to update the current safety manual. Ask the human resources director, senior management team and CEO to review and sign off on it. - 4). Develop an all-employee safety training class based on the new safety manual. Enlist the assistance of the company trainer to hold training sessions or ask for volunteer trainers from the safety committee.
Create a one-hour safety training session for all employees. Include skits performed by safety committee members, a PowerPoint presentation and interactive role play. Bring hazards to life by asking safety committee members to act out a potential hazard and to relate what would happen if it isn't corrected. Invite employees to choose a partner and role-play one scenario from the safety manual. Conclude training with a quiz to evaluate whether employees retained the information. - 5). Conduct all-employee safety training sessions. Depending upon the size of your organization, divide the sessions by department or into small groups of employees. If your company has less than 50 employees, hold a company-wide training session.
Select a conference or training room to hold your one-hour class. Prepare copies of the safety manual either for each employee or for the department.
If you furnish the manual only to the departments, create a safety manual handout for each employee that highlights the important points from the training and the manual. If you hold safety training before or after work hours, provide employees with a snack or food. Make training fun and inviting by playing games such as Safety Bingo, where employees have to match the safety hazard instead of a number.