As a PCBU, creating and maintaining a safe work environment is vital. It is important to provide workers with the tools and knowledge to identify hazards, mitigate risks and prioritise safety when in the workplace. To ensure this, it is important to provide your workers with the right safety training courses to equip them with the knowledge to maintain a safe work environment.
Here are four essential safety training courses that your employees should complete to foster a safer workplace. Â
Ergonomics Training
When a workplace has not implemented or provided its employees with a correct ergonomic set-up, it can lead to increased risks to an employee’s health. Naturally, modern-day workplaces force our bodies into postures they are not designed for, so it is more important than ever to implement good ergonomic practices.
Notably, preventable musculoskeletal injuries are often the cause of a poor selection of workplace equipment (e.g. chairs, keyboards) and the way in which a person interacts with them.
This Ergonomics Training Course helps you to identify high-risk workplace equipment and gives you strategies to assist with the human behaviours associated with their successful implementation.
In this training course, participants will learn:
- The essentials of the human anatomy,
- Posture,
- Workstation set up and layout,
- Bad habits,
- And self-management techniques.
Moreover, office-based workers will receive information about workplace layout and set-up, appropriate seating, occupational overuse injuries, bad habits, and environmental contributors. On the contrary, non-office based staff will receive information about plant and equipment layout and use, manual handling, guarding, and environmental factors relevant to their type of work
Contractor Management Training
If you have hired the services of a contractor you are responsible for the activities performed at your premises. You are also responsible for the actions of a sub-contractor, hired by the principal contractor that you engaged. Additionally, the Work Health and Safety (WHS) Act 2011 adopts a broad definition of ‘worker’ that now includes contractors. Your safety system needs to be applied equally to contractors as it is to your employees.
Undertaking a Contractor Management Training course will show you how to manage this complex arrangement and close as many potential points of exposure as possible. This course can be attended by managers and supervisors responsible for organising and overseeing contractual work as part of your business’s undertaking.
Contractor Management Training participants will learn:
- Outline work, health and safety (WHS) legal obligations of PCBU’s, Officers, Workers, and others under the new WHS Act 2011,
- Understand the importance of workplace health and safety consultation in relation to contractors,
- Identify the types of documentation the organisation should be asking of contractors and review their own procedures objectively,
- Apply a risk management approach in order to prioritise contractor activity risk,
- Develop an appropriate induction,
- Consider the requirements of Permits to Work,
- Consider online platforms to assist in contractor management,
- Recall case examples to apply to their own workplace,
- Reporting incidents, injuries or non-compliance requirements, and
- Evaluate and monitor the performance of contractors in relation to health and safety.
Manual Handling Training
According to SafeWork Australia, body stressing injuries (sprains and strains) account for 37% of serious workplace injury claims. Our belief is that sprains and strains are largely avoidable injuries that can be prevented by a targeted risk management approach. One component in this risk management is the implementation of job-specific manual handling training.
The workplace can’t always be the perfect environment for lifting and moving objects. As such, safety training courses improve the skills of your staff in identifying manual handling risks and how to apply manual handling principles to allow them to perform the task better on a day-to-day basis.
Additionally, this Manual Handling training course informs participants on the theoretical basics and developing their skills in the practical application of the best practice manual handling techniques.
Manual handling participants will learn:
- What is Manual Handling?
- How Manual Handling injuries occur?
- Identify, assess and control Manual handling risks
- Anatomy and Biomechanics
- Safe Lifting Techniques – theory and practice
Manual handling is something that every worker deals with on a daily basis and is an important safety training course that should begin with employees carrying the highest level of risk.
Officers Due Diligence Training
The WHS Act 2011 imposes a specific duty on officers of corporations and unincorporated bodies such as clubs and associations to exercise due diligence to ensure that the corporation, club or association meets its work health and safety obligations. The duty requires officers to be proactive in ensuring that the corporation, club or association complies with its duty.
As an officer, you will need to show that you have taken reasonable steps to show your due diligence by :
- Acquiring knowledge of health and safety issues;
- Understanding operations and associated hazards and risks;
- Ensuring that appropriate resources and processes are used to eliminate or minimise risks to health and safety;
- Implementing processes to receive and respond to information about incidents, hazards and risks; and
- Establishing and maintaining compliance processes accessing up to date safety information.
For this reason, this training is beneficial for anyone with management responsibilities but in particular senior managers and the board of directors. The purpose of this course is to provide information on key elements of the WHS Act to persons conducting a business or undertaking and their officers, with particular emphasis on the positive duty to exercise Due Diligence.
Manual handling training participants will learn:
- How safety laws work;
- What do terms like Due Diligence and reasonably practicable mean?;
- Case studies;
- What this will mean in practical terms to the management of safety throughout your business;
- Highlights the key areas this will impact your business; and
- Issues to consider.
How we can helpÂ
Recovery Partners helps both small and large Australian businesses take a more proactive approach to managing risks and hazards in your workplaces. With our assistance, you can protect your staff, meet your WHS obligations and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of your WHSMS. We offer a wide range of services to help your business run safely and conscientiously. These services help to safeguard staff wellbeing, productivity and ultimately, profitability.Â
We maintain workplace safety and health with the assistance of our Safety Training Courses and Safety Training Needs Analysis.
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Disclaimer – these articles are provided to supply general safety information to people responsible for OHS in their organisation. They are general in nature and do not substitute for legal and/or professional advice. We always suggest that organisations obtain information specific to their needs. Additional information can be found at https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/Â