Teaching Fall Protection
Fall protection is a complex subject. It takes hours, if not days, just to come to grips with the regulatory requirements. And the regulations represent only a minimum standard. As safety professionals, we should be concerned with not just meeting the regulations but going beyond them. That might involve implementing voluntary standards from organizations such as ANSI and CSA. And, of course, we must also consider the recommendations of the PPE and equipment manufacturers. When teaching fall protection (about two to six times a month), you should always cover regulatory requirement. But also try to present a more holistic view [...]
What to Look for in Better Online Safety Training
HOW DO YOU EVALUATE ONLINE SAFETY TRAINING AND FIND WHAT’S RIGHT FOR YOUR BUSINESS? According to Ebbinghaus’ Forgetting curve, we can estimate that employees forget: 50% of what they learn within one hour 80% of what they learn after two days 90% of what they learn after 31 days Download this special report to learn more: What to Look For in Better Online Safety Training
Raising the Temperature on Heat Exposure Training
Most areas are going to be entering their warmer summer months – and it’s not going unnoticed. Safety organizations like OSHA and Workers Compensation Boards are reminding industries to start training before it’s too late. According to the US Bureau of labor statistics, fifty-seven deaths occurred to workers ages 55 to 64 from 2011 to 2019. During that period, 144 workers died from environmental heat exposure while they were engaged in construction, repair, or cleaning, and 54 workers died while conducting materials handling operations. It's easy to assume that most people use common sense when the temperature starts to rise [...]
How to Deal With Unengaged Learners
HOW TO BUILD A MORE EFFECTIVE SAFETY CULTURE IN YOUR ORGANIZATION? Adults, unlike children, teenagers and students, in most cases, have a lot of things on their minds and your eLearning course is probably the last one of them. In addition, your adult learners don’t see the rewards of their efforts as soon as they would expect, and giving them candy doesn’t work as it works with children. Also, academic habits, they once possessed are also long forgotten. Least but not last, a lot of the learners are often forced to take on your eLearning course to enhance their skills, [...]
You recognize hazards in the workplace but what are you doing about them?
30 years ago, the so-called Westray affair was one of the worst workplace disasters in Canadian history. At 5:20 AM on May 9, 1992, an explosion tore through an underground coal mine in Plymouth, Nova Scotia. Fires started. The ground above collapsed. None of the 26 miners inside the mine came out alive. What made it especially hard to take was that it was preventable. The mine operators knew that combustible methane gases were building up inside the mines but didn’t provide necessary ventilation or take other steps to abate the problem. Worse, the officials failed to warn the miners [...]
Worker’s Memorial Day
Every year, on April 28, the world recognizes Workers Memorial Day. Today is the day we pay our respects to those who lost their lives on the job, and recognize the impact of these tragic losses on the families, co-workers, and communities of those we have lost. As we navigate our way out of the COVID pandemic, this year, like last, is especially somber given the increasing number of essential workers who put their lives on the line during the pandemic, some of whom got sickened and/or died. They were not all healthcare workers, many were grocery clerks and stock [...]
How do we handle “mask shaming” when we return to work?
Courtesy of Littler Mendelson P.C. Dear Littler: I am the VP of Culture, Inclusion & Belonging at a mid-size firm in the financial sector. With a pending Return to Office (RTO) date for most of our workforce just a few weeks away, I want to get ahead of an issue that I have seen developing among members of both our employee and client populations during some in-person interactions that we have had over the past few months: “mask shaming.” I wince anytime I hear an employee tell a masked colleague “You must not be vaccinated!” or a client who challenges [...]
Reflect on the Workers Lost on National Day of Mourning
Years ago, I got a call that nobody wants to get. A close friend’s father had fallen off the roof during an inspection – his injuries were too severe – he didn’t survive the fall. I wish I could say this is rare – but it’s not. I have no idea what your schedule looks like for Thursday, but I strongly urge you to ensure it allows for some reflection. Take a moment to pause and think about why you do what you do. I promise, you won’t be alone. That’s because April 28, 2022, is the National Day of [...]
How to Build Better Refresher Safety Training
Utilizing Microtraining & Other Solutions to Engage Employees Workforce safety training is required, regulated, recurring, and really boring if it isn’t done effectively. No wonder why over 80% of safety managers don’t think their safety training is sticking. OSHA, CalOSHA, other States and Canadian Provincial regulators have more than 20 standards that REQUIRE annual recurring training for employees exposed to hazards. In addition, regulators use language like “regular recurring” for some hazard specific standards to emphasize that refresher training is a requirement, but the timeline is dependent on other factors like seasonality and exposure limits. In addition, annual training is [...]
Historic events teach us to always be prepared
April 18th is the 100th anniversary of one of the greatest natural disasters in American history: the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906. The shaking started at 5:12 AM and was felt as far away as Los Angeles, Oregon and central Nevada. It lasted barely a minute but killed approximately 900 people. But worst was to come. The quake sparked fires that raged for three days, gutting the entire downtown and killing between 3,000 and 5,000. The loss of 30,000 buildings left much of the city’s population homeless. And for some, the suffering was just beginning. In the aftermath of [...]
Training Adults Using Participatory Learning
Want to see a higher rate of retention and return on investment in your training program? Keep these characteristics in mind when it comes to adult learning. Adults are self-motivated. Adults expect training to apply immediately and directly to their lives/work/job. Adults learn best when they are actively engaged – and not passively listening to a lecture or video. Learning activities for adults work best when learners can practice and develop both technical knowledge and general skills. Adults learn best when they can interact with both the instructor and their peers. This can be done in a variety of ways [...]
Don’t Teach my Mother WHMIS
My mom works in a highly hazardous occupation. She belongs to a class of workers who are the most injured in British Columbia. According to WorkSafeBC’s 2020 annual report, people in her line of work are commonly injured during interactions with the people they care for. That’s right, my mom isn’t a lobster fisher or a steep-slope tree faller. She is a health care assistant (HCA). She has been one for more than twenty years. During that time, she has mainly worked as a home support worker; visiting the homes of the elderly to assist with things that they [...]
