Do my staff need Safety Refresher Training?

They say ‘never assume anything’ (whoever THEY are!). But if there is one thing that is safe to assume, it is “YES – your employees need Safety Refresher Training.” Besides being legislated, its just common sense. New starters in your firm will need to be assessed that their professed skills and knowledge are what they say they are. It would also be folly to assume that your trusted veterans that have been reliably and safely performing at your ‘coal face’ for years, have not become complacent or just uninformed of modern, safer practices.

What is the business case for Safety Refresher Training?

Just the pure act of enrolling your staff on Safety Refresher Training sends clear messages that safety remains an ongoing priority in your workplace and supports a healthy and robust safety culture. Additionally, if you find yourself in the unfortunate position of entertaining a post-incident HSE investigation, you can be sure they’ll look for documented evidence of training and refresher training.

HSE.gov very neatly describes the business case thus:

Effective training…

■ will contribute towards making your employees competent in health and safety;

■ can help your business avoid the distress that accidents and ill health cause;

■ can help you avoid the financial costs of accidents and occupational ill health, such as damaged products, lost production and demotivated staff. Don’t forget that your insurance might not cover all these costs. For information on business insurance, go to www.gov.uk.

How do I manage Refresher Training?

Well, you can do it on a face to face basis using your in-house training staff or outsourced training partner but that throws up challenges of learner and trainer availability, lots of paperwork and internal admin. By far the most competitive and factually consistent method adopted by most companies these days is to commit your refresher training to an online platform. This can happen in two different ways:

Use a online library of approved courses that meet your requirements, and are fairly standardised i.e. fire marshall training, General Health & safety in Workplace etc
If your business needs tailored courses specific and relevant to your processes, plant and people i.e. Risk Assessment Methodology, then your outsourced training partner should be able to help. The format should be instructional film in short chapters, followed by a short online exam.

Either way, the beauty of the online system is that you can set each employees refresher programme at the start of the year, both standard and your own bespoke courses on the same platform. You should expect monthly dashboard interim reports on their progress and scores automatically and you should expect to be able to access the online platform anytime to look at progress of each learner and the business overall.

Force Four Training offer both types of service mentioned above so feel free to call us for further information on 0800 470 4441