Organisational leaders have a moral duty of care to keep all employees safe. Safer workplaces are more productive workplaces where worker injuries can be avoided. Workplace incidents that cause injury cost organisations in the tens of billions of dollars. Take the responsible and cost-effective approach and provide comprehensive training for your employees to reduce risk in the organisation, in comparison to the unknown repercussions of an incident, not to mention the negative publicity it could bring.
Risk can take various forms. As well as the obvious risk of workplace-related injury and disease, there are also risks associated with failing to protect employees from the actions of others. There are also risks associated with not being aware of what to do in an emergency, such as a fire.
Workplace-related injury and disease
Every workplace has its hazards, so it’s essential for employees to understand how to stay safe at work. Sitepass offers a broad range of workplace safety courses. The work health and safety fundamentals course is a sensible place to start; it provides an overview of risk in the workplace and how to mitigate that risk. Learners will get started on the pathway of managing workplace-related injury and disease. One of the most common causes of injury at work is when completing manual tasks. This can include lifting heavy objects, repetitive tasks, or handling bulky items. The manual tasks training for workers course teaches workers how to avoid injuries while performing these tasks in less than an hour.
Bullying and harassment
Bullying and harassment is a topic of focus in Australia in recent months as incidents at the highest levels of government have come to light. Whether harassment is sexual or based on gender, ethnicity, age, politics, demographics, or other factors, it’s illegal in the workplace. Bullying and harassment is tricky to address in the workplace for several reasons. People who are bullied are usually too frightened to speak up due to their relatively low status, compared with their abuser. And sometimes, the opposite is true; the person who perceives that they’re being bullied is experiencing normal workplace management. It’s essential to ensure that all employees clearly understand:
- what constitutes bullying or harassment versus reasonable management action
- what behaviour won’t be tolerated
- what to do if the employee is being harassed, and what they can expect if they report the behaviour
- what to do if the employee sees another person being bullied or harassed.
The Australian Productivity Commission’s draft mental health report estimated that workplace bullying costs Australia’s economy as much as $47.4 billion each year due to loss of productivity, absenteeism, legal costs, and early retirement payouts.
The bullying and harassment training for employees course is designed to help workers build positive behaviours and minimise negative ones. It is endorsed by the NSCA Foundation and was created in collaboration with legal firm Thomson Geer.
INX Sitepass also offers a bullying and harassment training course for managers and supervisors. The 85-minute course trains managers and supervisors to recognise bullying and harassing behaviour and how to prevent it, as well as how to handle incidents or reports of bullying or harassment.
Responding to emergencies
An emergency such as a fire at work can range from a minor inconvenience to a major catastrophe, often depending on how workers respond. If workers are trained in fire awareness and how to use fire extinguishing equipment, then they can prevent smaller fires from getting out of hand. Beyond that, they need to understand when and how to evacuate the premises safely to minimise the risk to people.
The fire awareness and extinguisher training course aims to help workers prepare so they can be calm and respond responsibly in a fire emergency. In just one hour, workers can learn about the true risk posed by fires including bushfires, how to respond to a fire emergency, and how to use portable fire equipment. This popular course has been developed in conjunction with well-known fire safety equipment provider Chubb and is endorsed by the NSCA Foundation.
Investing a few hours in the right risk management courses can save organisations a great deal of wasted time and money by ensuring workers are properly trained and, therefore, compliant with risk mitigation requirements.
To learn more or find a course that’s right for your organisation get in touch for help with your workplace risk management digital training needs.
