Tech and Innovation: The Future Of Workplace Safety Training
Technological innovations are helping to make workplace training more accessible and less challenging for business owners and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future.
Safety training is required for all workplaces; however, effective safety training is a challenge for most. According to a recent survey, some of the biggest challenges in effective safety training involve scheduling time, verifying authenticity and determining retraining options. However, technological innovations are helping to make workplace training more accessible and less challenging for business owners and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future.
Workplace Safety Training Today
Workplace safety training is essential to providing employees with the necessary knowledge and resources to keep not only themselves but others safe on the job. In 2020, 924 workers in Canada died due to work-related causes (the latest year that data was available). Numerous others were injured or became ill in workplace-related incidents and accidents. Studies have shown that when employees receive effective safety training early and often, they are less likely to be injured on the job or to cause an injury to others.
Today, guidelines mandate that “Employers must ensure that employees have the necessary information, training and supervision to perform their jobs safely.” Ideally, this training applies not just to new hires, but to investing in retraining or refresher training for existing employees. Workplace safety and training should be an ongoing process that is completed regularly to keep all employees or team members up to date with the latest in safety practices. At a minimum training should be refreshed annually, beyond the required certifications and specializations (i.e. confined spaces certification, JHSC Certification, etc).
Many companies do not provide training beyond onboarding or maintaining certifications due to the challenges related to the difficulty in scheduling, expenses related to training and finding the right training resources. Training can be costly for organizations, especially if they don’t know what to look for in a training program. Not training employees properly in safety management can be more costly. Technology is quickly improving the outlook of workplace safety training across North America.