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TRAINING & EDUCATION EYES ON THE PRIZE


Jane Bell, Director of Learning and Development Services for BIFM Training discusses why it is important to train employees to view health and safety practices as part of the everyday and not just a box-ticking exercise.


The good news is that our workplaces are a lot safer than they used to be – and we can prove it. According to the UK Health & Safety Executive (HSE), fatal injuries have fallen by 85% since the introduction of the Health and Safety at Work Act of 1974, and non-fatal injuries by 77%. Management of health & safety in the workplace and levels of training for staff are also tangibly improving: 98% of establishments with five-or-more employees in the UK now document their health and safety procedures and responsibilities, while 84% with health and safety representatives provide training.


also take advantage of structured reporting to provide evidence of online course completion as part of their wider compliance programmes.


“IT’S IMPORTANT TO SEE HEALTH AND SAFETY NOT SIMPLY


AS A SET OF LEGAL REQUIREMENTS BUT AS PART OF A POSITIVE MANAGEMENT CULTURE.”


This is all very positive news, but among the data are signs that there is still plenty of work to do. Related HSE figures suggest a levelling-off in self-reported illness and injury rates since 2010, and in 2015/16, 4.5 million working days were lost as a result of self-reported injuries, with an obvious knock-on effect on workplace productivity.


Education and training clearly has a key role to play in driving improvements, and has been a cornerstone of both EU and UK policy in recent decades. Accredited programmes established by the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) and others have also created valuable competence benchmarks and helped to set industry standards for good practice. But as the pressures on individuals and organisations increase, training providers need to be as creative as possible in making sure the key messages can be covered effectively.


Time is now a major factor in delivering training, and in parallel, new formats and channels for learning are increasingly seen as alternatives to more traditional classroom-based sessions, providing greater flexibility for learners as well as supporting different learning styles. E-learning and other online options that can be provided across a range of devices potentially make training available to a much greater range of employees, who may be widely dispersed or otherwise unable to take the required time to attend face-to-face courses. Organisations operating web-based Learning Management Systems, can


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However, these new formats for learning are not without their challenges for learners, and if possible, employers will be able to offer these as part of a blended learning solution, which not only includes options for remote study access but also opportunities to meet face-to-face and explore ‘live’ issues, to help employees appreciate how health and safety practices can work best within their own culture. Experience shows that if we’re going


to continue improving our approach to health and safety it’s vital that everyone feels a sense of ownership, and that individuals are encouraged to contribute new ideas to help reduce or eliminate workplace risks and hazards, including the psychological/stress factors that increasingly feature in work-related-illness data.


An important lesson from a training perspective is that as our working lives become increasingly complicated and diverse, it’s important to see health and safety not simply as a set of legal requirements but as part of a positive management culture, which encourages innovation and continuous improvement. To engage fully, employees need to be able to see beyond the wealth of legal detail, and appreciate how and why encouraging a strong safety culture matters in a wider sense.


Being able to measure the impact of improved processes is essential, but while the traditional metrics based on accident rates and lost productivity, can provide an important wake-up call to prevent complacency, the ability to identify and track positive benefits as part of a quality- management agenda is likely to have a greater impact longer term. Developing a balanced set of measures can potentially help to justify further investment in both training and operational spend to reduce risk, which has to be a prize worth winning.


www.bifm-training.com www.tomorrowshs.com


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