While gym memberships may fall by the wayside before January draws to a close, there’s one training plan you should strive to stick to as you enter the new year.
If you want to make 2018 your safest, most productive year yet, it’s time to draw up a forklift training plan for 2018 & stick to it. But what needs to be on it?
Well, any company’s training strategy must be tailored to its own operations and processes to ensure it’s relevant to its staff, equipment and environment. To highlight your areas for improvement, ask yourself the following key questions. If you answer ‘no’ to any of these, they should become fundamental to this year’s training plan.
- Do you understand and provide all three elements of forklift operator training required by the Approved Code of Practice, L117? Basic, job specific and familiarisation?
- Do all forklift operators receive regular refresher training? Not just periodically but if their equipment/task/environment changes, or they have a near miss?
- Do pedestrians working in proximity to forklift trucks receive forklift safety awareness training — even if they only occasionally use the same area?
- Are temporary workers given sufficient training to familiarise themselves not just with the truck and the task, but the site itself and the potential hazards?
- Are your managers trained to recognise bad practice and confident enough to intervene? Do they understand the practical, legal and financial consequences of unsafe operations and any resulting accidents?
New year, new start
Once you’ve established your areas for improvement, include them in your 2018 training plan and make this the year that you improve on them.
And before you finalise your plans, don’t underestimate the value in talking to your staff, to see what they feel can be improved. Find out what would help them do their job safer. Ask them what training they think they might benefit from and how it might benefit them.
With a variety of courses and support services available for operators, managers, and pedestrians alike, Mentor is able to help companies of all types and sizes come up with a tailored plan that ensures safety, compliance and profitability for the long-term.
After all, it is a bit like joining a gym. A little bit of training once or twice might make you feel like you’re achieving something, but – without ongoing commitment – you won’t get the best results. Regular training for everyone at risk keeps your entire workforce sharper, and gets your operation fighting fit, so it’s running more leanly and efficiently.
So think about how you’d like your company to look in 12 months’ time. Then get in touch and talk to us about how we can help get you there.
And don’t forget about the pedestrians. You should never skip leg day.
