OSHA Defense
5 Tips for Conducting an Effective Safety Training Course
As a contractor, focusing too much attention on the scope of work required for a project may lead to you just going through the motions when it comes to safety training. It’s important that contractors don’t cut corners, otherwise they may become overly reliant on resources like outdated flyers or safety training videos.
In this brief article, a Florida OSHA lawyer will provide five tips for conducting successful training courses. Remember, when everyone on your jobsite is on the same page, the odds of receiving a costly citation from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) are greatly reduced. However, if you do require OSHA defense, a Florida OSHA defense lawyer is standing by.
1) Be Prepared to Present
The first step to producing a productive training course is to be prepared as the presenter. Before you gather everyone around for a training course, you need to review the content and make certain that you are familiar with it. In other words, you don’t want to come off like a bad actor just reading off a script. Once you do this, you are ready to engage the audience.
2) Noise-Free Environment
Jobsites are distracting places filled with obnoxiously loud equipment and other distractions. When you are conducting a safety training course, remove any distracting elements from the area. If it’s necessary, perform the meeting away from the controlled chaos of the jobsite.
3) Visual Learning is Crucial
The average human attention span is only eight seconds. You need to keep this in mind when you are preparing your safety training course. A few ways to combat this issue is to have plenty of props and other visual guides to help illustrate the points being made within the lesson. Another great way to help teach an important topic is through hands-on experience (when available).
4) Promote Participation
Promote participation from your audience to engage them in the lesson. A common way to successfully do this is to feature a Q&A segment at the end of each training lesson. Some contractors also include trivia questions at the beginning or end of each segment, so there are many ways to feature audience participation.
5) It Starts With You
A safety presentation will only be as effective as the credibility of the person presenting the information. If you don’t practice what you preach, the workforce will not respect the safety training lesson you are presenting, nor will they abide by the safety message. It’s critical that contractors always set a good example for everyone else on the jobsite in order to effectively promote safety in the workplace.
If you would like to speak with a Florida OSHA defense lawyer, please contact us today.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article is for general educational information only. This information does not constitute legal advice, is not intended to constitute legal advice, nor should it be relied upon as legal advice for your specific factual pattern or situation.