Organizational success depends on how conducive the working environment is. The human resource is an integral part of the operations in the organization should, therefore, be provided with safety and health training so that the success of the organization will be realized. Exercise should not be just once after recruitment but rather as regular as possible. This sharpens the skills of the workforce and keeps them informed with procedures to do with health and safety. Investing in health and safety should be an all-inclusive aspect, so that top to level staff are equipped on how to deal and anticipate risks and if possible, mitigate the loss of its occurrence.
As an owner of a business or manager, you need to always allocate resources towards training your staff. It may seem like a less important detail to adhere to, but it certainly has some vital benefits to the business. Some of these benefits may include:
1. Improves productivity
Conducive working environments indeed yield results in productivity. Equipping staff with the right protecting gear, warning signs, and having a safety policy ensures that work progress is made safe.Staff needs to be also equipped with knowledge on how to handle hazardous chemicals and thus leading to continuous flow of production. Apart from having the right safety gear and expertise is not enough as you may also need your staff to stay healthy. Long working hours and dangerous exposures may deteriorate the health of your staff. How do you counter this? It’s only by the introduction of healthy practices in the organization such as fitness sessions, team building activities, and also screenings on levels of exposures. This ensures that the staff get to be aware of their health status and stay healthy and thus a more productive workforce.
E learning is now a method used in many businesses for delivering health and safety training, and it can increase staff engagement in health and safety processes, and most importantly allow your staff to retain more of the information that they need to in order to keep your businesses up to date in terms of health and safety requirements. ‘The benefits of health and safety software for your business are various’ says David Rowland, the head of marketing Engage EHS
2. Legal constraints
You certainly do not want to be on the wrong side of the law. Compliance with health and safety ensures that you do nor receive lawsuits that may be costly and can go as far as business closure. Exposing your staff to unhealthy and unsafe chemicals and practices may render you to face the law which you can avoid by complying. While setting up your business, always ensure you do a risk assessment and have a risk policy that will ensure that health and safety are adhered to. Sensitize this by training your staff on it so that they become aware of the risks in the organization. You may also use sufficient incident management software that will act as a tool to keep track of risks and measures that are to be put in place to counter them. Acts such as OSHA, if not complied, once inspections are done may render your business to face the law, which is not lenient, especially when it comes to employer-employee relationships.
3. Reduction on liability and insurance costs
Employers are fully responsible for the employees in their organization. Once incidences occur within the working hours and premise of business, the employer should be liable to it. Training on health and safety ensures that there are no incidences and, if any, they are mitigated and thus lessens insurance costs. Insurance is there to transfer the risks to the insurer but is quite costly to pay for it, which you may avoid by just regularly training your staff on health and safety so that they become aware of what risks they may be exposed to.
4. Improves brands image
Training your staff on safety and health procedures build a better brand image. You look responsible for your staff and thus attract a more significant market as compared to competitors not adhering to this. Your staff also feel appreciated and cared for while they undergo these training sessions and hence preach the good deeds of your business hence a better reputation for you. While you train your staff, they can be skilled and knowledgeable, and thus this will reflect on their way of doing things. Your staff is the engine to your business and therefore, will always produce and offer services safely of what clients expect, leading to a better brand reputation.
5. Leads to loyal employees
The workforce you have needs to feel appreciated and considered by the organization. Once you see to it that they undergo training regularly, it becomes a reason for them not to miss work and lowers the staff-turnovers as they have a conducive working environment. It gives them the motivation to work and be retained in the organization as they stay safe and healthy by ensuring that they get training. Regular training also helps to keep the organization interactive and, thus, a happy workforce.