Safety on a Budget? Part 1: Safety Training
Training Session
Are you a safety professional working with limited resources? Are you wracking your brain trying to figure out how to provide quality safety training and education for your team, yet still fit within your budget? In this first Safety on a Budget post, we will review 4 cost effective ways to obtain quality safety training for your team.
1) Leverage your insurance benefits! Workers’ compensation and related business insurance providers often offer free or highly discounted safety training courses and related services to their customers. While working for an employer early in my career, I was able to obtain free driver safety training for my employees in English and Spanish from our insurance provider. As an added bonus, the training along with an updated company driver safety program resulted in reduced premium the following year. The training was also a benefit to my employees personally who were able to use the safety training course credentials to obtain better personal auto insurance rates and reduced points. The Ohio BWC offers free employee and professional development training for participating employers, who also may benefit from reduced rates for using this service. Check with your workplace insurance providers and state agencies to discover what benefits they offer.
2) Talk to your safety supply vendors! Some safety equipment and supply vendors provide free training and demonstrations to their clients. At one time, Miller Fall Protection had a “Road Show” that they took to their customer locations to demonstrate various pieces of fall protection, even allowing users to hang suspended in the harnesses so they could understand how the equipment worked in a controlled environment. Similarly, companies that rent or sell heavy equipment such as forklifts, aerial lifts and cranes provide training to their customers as a service. Often such training is called “familiarization” and may not cover all OSHA required topics on a particular subject, however they do provide an opportunity for employees to ask and answer questions about a specific piece of equipment they will be using. Ask your suppliers and vendors if they provide these services to their customers.
3) Make use of OSHA! OSHA has free training materials available through their training website, though some may be dated. Their materials include PowerPoint presentations, videos viewable online and a variety of useful publications. Susan Harwood Training Grant Programs are typically free training programs provided by nonprofit organizations and funded by the Department of Labor. Several grants are awarded every year on a variety of topics. Susan Harwood Grant materials in multiple languages are located here.
4) Leverage your memberships! Check out local and national safety organizations such as ASSP and the National Safety Council (NSC). ASSP has several free training resources available for members. The ASSP also has several courses available funded by the Susan Harwood Grant that are available for non-members as well. The NSC offers a wide variety of affordable training for members. Local chapters and local safety councils often provide free seminars and other benefits for employees of members and non-members alike.
Whatever your training needs, there are likely to be resources available that provide high quality and cost-effective solutions, it just takes a little networking and research. If you have discovered cost effective training resources that have met your needs, please share!