Health & safety induction training standards

It is a fact that many accidents occur within the first week of an employee starting with a company. Most accidents also occur when employees undertake tasks that they are not competent to perform, which is why induction safety training is so important from the offset. When businesses are busy, it's all too easy to look for a quick fix rather than the best solution or to overlook key issues. Having a health & safety induction training system for new employees helps you take control and reduce risks.

Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, businesses are required to provide "information, instruction, training and supervision as is necessary to ensure, the health and safety at work of employees."

Site health and safety induction training for contractors is a legal requirement, and each person should receive a site safety induction at every new site they work on. This includes safety inductions for visitors too. Health & safety induction training systems are a great way to provide employees with the site specific health and safety rules and requirements, and any particular hazards they need to be aware of. Legislation includes: - Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and Management of Health and Safety Regulations 1999. Employers should include essential hse induction training not just for new staff, but induction training for contractors and site safety induction for visitors; plus ongoing and refresher training for other staff.

A site safety induction training for contractors should take the form of either:

a recognised national standard
a sector-specific framework
in-house standards, procedures or codes

These provide a framework for developing your health & safety induction training system. They help you identify the key issues to allow you to produce a site safety induction system that's right for your individual business.

Key points for a health & safety induction training systems for visitors & staff:

The employer responsible for implementing a health and safety system must ensure that:

New employees and contractors must complete health and safety induction training prior to starting any activities in the workplace,
All employees and contractors are given relevant information on the risks to their health and safety and specify what control measures are in place to protect them,
Employees and contractors never undertake any activities or tasks until they have received a specific site safety induction training
Employees and contractors have sufficient health & safety induction training relating to the equipment, machinery, dangerous substances and transport equipment on site,
No persons on site should undertake tasks they have not been trained for,
All employees, contractors and visitors attend health and safety training in accordance to their needs,
Health & safety inductions for visitors and contractors need to be signed and dated by all parties (electronically or in person.) Records of all agreements and training results stored and monitored accordingly,
A training needs analysis is conducted for all employees and will identify all aspects of health and safety training required,
All identified training is carried out,
Health & safety inductions for visitors should be kept under review,

Induction safety training for visitors & contractors - system basics

Health & safety induction training for new employees, site safety induction for visitors and induction training for contractors must be carried out prior to starting any activity in the workplace. Standard induction topics are: -

Company health and safety policy
Specific workplace/site rules
Emergency procedures (such as fire drills, first aid kit locations, accident reporting etc.)
Relevant risk assessments and safe systems of work (including COSHH, manual handling)
Job specific information
Employee's responsibilities
Personnel (Names and locations of key staff)
Site map/plans (including noise exclusion zones as well as general facilities)
Local area rules and instructions
Site safety isolation and lock off points - (if applicable)
Personal protective equipment - (if applicable)
Asbestos - (if applicable)
Inspection regimes
Housekeeping

Plan your contractor health & safety induction structure

A good way to visualise the planning of your system is to use the cycle below. This will help you assess the requirements of your health & safety induction training system and if you are covering the standard requirements.

Induction Safety Training Cycle

Image source: Croner

The first step in the induction safety training cycle is to decide whether training is the solution to a particular health and safety issue.
Identifying the training requirements means establishing the particular training needed.
Setting the objectives for the training involves looking at the current state of the employees’ knowledge, skills or attitudes, and determining what changes the training should achieve.
Determining the training strategy. Consider the organisation’s policies towards training, resources, the time available and other considerations. This will include deciding on the method of training, eg on or off the job, classroom-based, computer-based, etc. to met the training needs.
The final stages are the implementation of your companies health & safety induction training and evaluation stages.

Health & safety induction training for contractors & visitors

An effective health and safety induction training system leads to many benefits for both the company and the employees. Positive outcomes include:-

Increased productivity; solving a health and safety problem may also solve a quality or production problem.
A reduction in accident and illness rates, this usually leads to a reduction in sickness absence.
Improvements to attitudes and behaviour, staff who have more positive attitudes towards safety are more likely to behave in a safe and thoughtful way.
Safety training opens channels of communication which can bring benefits beyond simply improving health and safety.

Site safety inductions are an important aspect of health & safety management, and can help familiarise new starters with the arrangements, hazards and rules specific to their role and working environment. Accidents can happen at any time and risks are especially high when a worker/ contractor first visits a new site and may not be familiar with the layout, team or work taking place. Ensuring your system meets the standard requirements is crucial. Read Our Guide To Induction Systems. We explain everything you need to know and what you need to avoid in order to make your company's health and safety induction training program a success. In our helpful guide about induction safety training & site safety inductions for visitors.