This month the National Safety Council (NSC) is promoting National Safety Month, an annual observance to help keep everyone safe on the job and at home. The agency has been promoting this event for more than a quarter century. Intertek Alchemy has been right there with them, with training solutions that teach and enable workplace safety every day for over 20 years.

Workplace safety training is our passion. We strive daily to keep frontline workers safe at more than 7,500 manufacturing plants worldwide, providing workplace safety training to major brands like Ocean Spray, Campbell’s, Maple Leaf, Tyson, JBS, and Kellogg’s. Over the last 18 months, our clients delivered more than 10 million Alchemy workplace safety training courses and observations.

Our training tools help clients reduce injuries in their facilities and meet regulatory requirements.   

This year, the NSC spotlights four weekly themes: emergency preparedness, slips, trips and falls, heat-related illnesses, and hazard recognition. Our group-based and eLearning training covers all of these essential areas. These five tips come to mind when we think of National Safety Month.

Keep Training Fresh and Relevant
Our research shows that companies providing at least 20 hours of annual safety training are 68% more likely to have employees following safety protocols on the floor. Even then, 66% believe, despite their best efforts, they still have employees who don’t follow workplace safety protocols on the floor. 

That’s why it’s important to keep safety training fresh and relevant to the job at hand. We find, for example, companies using site-specific photos or videos in training courses are two times more likely to have employees “very engaged” in their safety training.

Companies using a learning management system (LMS) can provide 30% more training refreshers and reinforcement. Our research shows that when you use interactive audience response training technology, you are 58% more likely to verify if a specific employee understood their training.

Stress Safety Training from Day One
Safety training isn’t something you can wait on or postpone until you know if an employee will stick around. Accidents can happen on the first day of the job, putting your employees at risk and costing you thousands in worker compensation claims, fines, or lawsuits.

A solid workplace safety training program should start on day one with effective employee onboarding. We work with clients to integrate safety training with their onboarding programs, beginning with a plan that standardizes on-the-job training across all shifts and departments to prevent bad practices from spreading through their factories.

We help them learn how to set aside times for frequent observations and feedback sessions to ensure employees are engaged and following safety practices. And we help them automate onboarding processes that help speed training for new hires.     

Get a Grip on Slips, Trips and Falls
Slips, trips and falls in the workplace are responsible for nearly 16 million injuries each year. They are the second leading cause of fatalities on the job and the third leading cause of employee disability.

Intertek Alchemy offers employee training courses that help prevent these injuries in and outside the workplace. We stress the importance of teaching employees how to use fall-prevention equipment, ladder safety, and being aware of their surroundings from the parking lot to the manufacturing floor.

Sweat the Hot Stuff
We’re just a few days into June, and the weather is already the hot topic in the news. Regardless if your employees work indoors or outside, it’s your responsibility to keep them from heat-related illnesses.

Start by implementing a buddy system with training to help workers identify overheating symptoms and what to do next. Educate employees on the basics of hydration, provide plenty of breaks, and create cool and shaded work areas. We offer training courses to educate employees about heat-related illnesses. If you need help developing or updating your safety programs to protect workers from the heat, one of our workplace safety consultants is here to help.

Create and Maintain a Hazards List
If you haven’t already, use this month to establish procedures that continually identify workplace hazards and evaluate risks. This means examining all processes and tasks, from the routine to the extraordinary for safety and health hazards. Periodic inspections and reassessments should follow your initial assessment to identify new risks. If you need help, our experts can come to your facility to conduct a workplace safety compliance assessment.

National Safety Month should serve as a reminder about the importance of safety year-round, saving lives, and protecting workers 24/7. By showing employees you care about their safety, you’ll discover higher morale, increased productivity, lower costs, and fewer injuries.

Every employee deserves a safe place to work. Contact us to learn how we can help create a safe and healthy work environment for your frontline workers.