New employees and long-time veterans often receive training on new products or services introduced by a brand, as well as on company processes or software applications. But many companies often consider safety training unnecessary.
What is safety training and why does it matter? Put simply, it’s a training process that educates employees about hazards and safety guidelines in their places of employment.
Obviously, some industries have more inherent dangers than others. Manufacturing, for example, will require safety training focused on machinery and warehouse hazards. But employees simply working in a marketing department might wonder why does safety training matter? The answer is because incidents in the workplace can occur in any setting, regardless of industry. And to further expand on what safety training is, it includes giving workers the skills and knowledge to act appropriately during emergencies.
But Safety Training Is Boring, and My Employees Are Smart
Ask an employee or department leader what safety training is, and they’ll probably reply that it’s boring, "common sense" training that nobody really needs. That train of thought is quite the opposite of the truth. Regardless of how smart or skilled a workforce is, employees need proper safety training to respond properly during emergencies. After all, they received education and training before acquiring the skills and tools needed to perform their jobs. Understanding what safety training is and why it matters is no different.
Besides, safety training doesn’t need to be boring. Instead of printing out dry manuals or sending emails that could be easily ignored, safety training can involve videos, audio tapes, books, brochures, handouts, slides, classroom instruction, and in-service training. In fact, videos are an excellent way to provide safety training to employees in different departments. Management and team leaders can easily create safety training videos specific to each department, punctuated by an all-encompassing safety training video that covers hazards and emergency response throughout the entire organization.
Hosting and managing these videos can be further facilitated with a business-oriented video management platform like Viostream. This easy-to-use, cloud-based app lets you store, synthesize, and share your video content with complete control. Plus, videos keep your employees more engaged than any other type of content. Try a free trial of Viostream today and take your safety training regimen to the next level.
Why Does Safety Training Matter?
When an employee has an accident, the results can cause issues within the entire organization. Work-related injuries have serious financial implications, and there is also the potential loss of employees with particular skills needed to ensure steady productivity. Additionally, as Covid-19 taught the world, larger emergencies can cripple businesses, both large and small. So, the question, why does safety training matter, has another important answer — to minimize the risk that the business will suffer from an unfortunate incident or emergency.
Avoiding injury in the workplace is, of course, the ideal situation. But, in the event of an incident, teaching employees to respond quickly, report accidents to the appropriate parties, and identify key areas to improve safety in the future are additional reasons why safety training matters.
It should also be noted that safety training doesn't wholly apply to the manual labor sector, either. Training employees on cybersecurity best practices is of critical importance for every company, of any size, in any industry.
Safety Training With Video
As mentioned above, video can be a great way to provide your employees with a strong, informative safety training program. Today’s ever-advancing technology makes it easy to quickly create and share videos with your employees, whether in the office, in the field, or working remotely.
The United States Department of Labor and OSHA have long recognized the power of video to inform and educate. They provide many safety training videos on their own websites. For safety training specific to your industry and workplace, you’ll need to create unique video content. When you begin, ask yourself, what safety training is required in your workplace? What are the dangers in your company that employees need to be aware of? What regulations do employees need to follow to remain in compliance?
You’ll likely need to produce several videos to cover a variety of subjects. But one of the benefits of using videos is that employees will soon also better realize what safety training is and why it matters. And, as mentioned above, safety training via video can also be delivered at any time, to employees in any location. This eliminates the need for classrooms, scheduling meetings, or engaging lecturers.
Video is also ideal for training employees with all levels of education, as well as those who are hearing or vision impaired. Transcription makes videos more accessible, and visual aids and supplemental materials make videos more memorable and engaging.
In Conclusion
Now that we’ve discussed what safety training is and why it matters, let’s also quickly consider some additional benefits. With videos, you can monitor employee progress, quickly send updates to employees, enable employees to complete safety training anywhere, and allow employees to review training videos as they deem necessary. And, with the aid of a video hosting and management platform like Viostream, you can really enhance your safety training program.
Ideally suited for training and learning, Viostream's video-sharing platform — combined with security features and amazing analytics — allows you to securely control your messaging and offers best-in-class tools to support your work. With accessibility for all and the ability to integrate with your LMS, you will be able to put together a safety training program with ease and ensure employees are equipped with the knowledge they need for a safer workplace. Start a free trial with Viostream today.
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