Creating a positive health and safety culture within any business is extremely important. Not only should you focus on raising awareness of potential hazards employees may come across, your staff need to behave in a safe manner from the outset. By taking the time to educate your team with a health and safety induction, and arming them with safe working practices, mistakes can be avoided. Creating a workplace induction with health & safety induction videos included in it could save you time and money. Read on to find out more about integrating an online safety induction within your business, and how a site induction video can help.

Inducting New Recruits

Under the Health & Safety At Work Act (1974), all employers are required to provide information, instruction and training where necessary to ensure the health and safety of their employees at work. A regulation brought out later in 1999 identified the importance of health & safety training when a new employee starts (health & safety induction software). New employees are more prone to accidents and work-related injuries, simply because they are not used to the site layout. As they will be trying to prove themselves within the early stages of employment, new employees often have a reduced risk perception too. It is therefore key that you take the time to provide an online workplace health & safety induction online video as well as orientation for new starters. Workplace health & safety videos for new employees are incredibly important.

What a bespoke workplace Health & Safety induction video should cover

Firstly, the level of depth required for the Health & Safety induction needs to be established. It is important not to overwhelm the new member of staff by going into too much detail, but the basics should be covered. For those businesses which require in-depth bespoke health & safety induction online videos, for example when an employee is entering a high-risk environment, you may want to consider an online health and safety induction. This removes any of the initial physical dangers, and allows the employee to gain an understanding of the processes before even arriving on site.

Your workplace health and safety induction policy

The purpose of workplace health and safety induction software is to set out the standards, raise awareness of hazards, and explain how the employee is responsible for instilling safe working practices. Your Health & Safety policy is the foundation of your health & safety management, so every member of staff should be familiar with its contents. It should detail how you keep employees safe on-site, and how you work to keep risks to a minimum. It is always a good idea to provide a Health & Safety handbook to your employees during induction so they have a reference point to look back at. Inductees should also complete an occupational health & welfare questionnaire relating to their role specifically. This will highlight any health problems which may limit them within their role. By making this digital by taking your health & safety induction online, this will save your business time and money.

Have you considered taking your bespoke health and safety induction online?

Traditional site tours are quickly becoming a thing of the past. Not only do they take up valuable time which could be spent on other tasks, it can be quite a tedious, repetitive job for the Health & Safety officer responsible. Particularly within larger organisations, it is difficult to ensure the Health & Safety officer is delivering concise, identical health and safety inductions online for new employees or visitor to the site. However, by delivering a bespoke health and safety induction online, this eliminates any inconsistencies and saves hours of repetitive training being manually delivered. Health & safety induction videos are also a lot more visually pleasing & help to engage workers through their learning.

Key tips for your online safety induction

Here are a few top tips for developing a good online h&s induction software:

Online induction allows the employee or contractor to complete the induction at their own pace and absorb the essential information better.
A digital induction can be segmented to offer each person an induction relevant to their role.
Modular, online safety induction video presentations, interspersed with question and answer sessions will impact the key messages.
Digital online safety inductions will automatically record the fact the health and safety induction training has been delivered.

Don’t treat training as a one-off exercise during induction, it should be revisited on a regular basis - particularly when employees are exposed to new risks. Building an online safety induction that will deliver regular tool-box talks will reinforce the initial induction and maintain a great level of communication for health and safety.

How we can help

Here at Res Digital, we have been designing and developing health and safety induction software for over 15 years. We create bespoke workplace health & safety induction videos suited to the individual requirements of your business. If you would like to find out more about taking your health & safety induction online, or creating a site induction video, please contact us today.