The Benefits of Safety Training in the Workplace

If you are an employer, perhaps you’ve made one of these excuses for not providing safety training for your staff: “It’s too expensive.” Or, “We’re a small operation, it’s not worth the effort.” What about this one: “We never have accidents here.”

While it may seem easy to argue against the need for safety training, in the long run it pays off to provide instruction on safety in the workplace. Consider these rebuttals to some common objections:

• Safety training is too costly. “I’m a small business, I only have five employees” Hector thought. The owner of a convenience store, Hector argued: “We barely generate a profit as it is. I can’t justify paying for safety training for my employees.” Imagine how much slimmer the profits will be if someone gets injured at work and your insurance premiums go up? While it may cost you a few hundred dollars to provide safety training for your staff, it may cost you thousands, or more, not to.

• There isn’t much potential for injury in this business.” Jennifer ran a small daycare with only two employees and a janitor on the payroll. “We don’t do anything dangerous at work” Jennifer states. “It’s not like working on a construction site. Nobody gets hurt here.”

The truth is, there is no such thing as immunity from workplace injuries. While some professions may come into contact with more hazards in a given workday, there is potential for injury in every workplace. Jennifer never considered the likelihood of back injuries from lifting children or heavy toys, or the many other possibilities for getting hurt on the job. There are safety training courses for every employer that can help you identify and eliminate the potential risks in your workplace.

• We’re too busy to offer safety training. Jackson, the Vice-President of Sales for a large electrical engineering company was enjoying the most profitable year since the company was founded 20 years ago. While employees were provided with some safety training at the time of hiring, no in-depth instruction was ever offered beyond the initial orientation. Over the years there had been a small number of minor injuries, and Jackson knew there was some work to do with regard to the safeness of the many operations of the company. But business was booming, and shutting down production even for a short time didn’t seem like a viable option at that point.

What Jackson doesn’t realize is that there are many ways to offer safety training without shutting down production. Between online safety training courses, webcasts, training videos/DVDs, and printed materials, there were many other options to halting production lines.

Employees can watch a training video during lunch break, or take a course at home via computer. In fact, safety training can occur right on the job through coaching by management. No matter what your needs are as an employer, there’s always a way to incorporate safety training without cutting into profitable work time.

To find out how you can make sure your workplace is in compliance with federal/state safety regulations, and to learn what safety training resources are available to you, contact OSHA (The Occupational Safety and Health Administration). OSHA is responsible for protecting every worker in the U.S. from injury and illness at work.

OSHA’s resources cover every topic imaginable, from how to prepare a shelter room in your workplace in case of biological or chemical contaminants, to how to conduct on-the-job practice safety drills, to the safe preparation and storage of food, to truck driver safety training, to the safe operation of equipment on the job, such as lasers, forklifts, tools, etc., and much more. Many of these resources are free and some can even be downloaded from the Internet.

Employers can also access various industry committee reports, OSHA regulations, safety inspection data, and more via OSHA online. By making employees part of the solution, employers will have the assurance that safety and security will be at the top of everyone’s mind at work, and that safety training at work will pay off in the end by keeping costs down and profits up.

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