You’d like to make your business a safer place. A good way to start is to make sure that your employees have the necessary safety training. While there are many training courses available it can be a challenge to determine which one your business needs.

The following are some of the most popular courses that businesses have their employees complete and how these trainings can positively impact their business.

 1. DOT Hazardous Materials General Awareness

Required by the Department of Transportation, this training provides crucial education for any employee involved in the safe shipping, receiving or transporting of hazardous materials by highway transport. Training should include the identification of hazardous materials and how to meet the regulatory requirements for packaging, marking, labeling hazardous materials for domestic highway shipments.

The DOT hazmat rules are stringent and not having trained employees can be costly. Penalties for non-compliance are as high as $77,114 per day, per violation. For hazmat training violations, the minimum fine is $463 per day, per violation. Trainings should be refreshed ever three years.

2. EPA RCRA Hazardous Waste Management

According to the EPA, a hazardous waste is a waste with properties that make it dangerous or capable of having a harmful effect on human health or the environment. Hazardous waste is generated from many sources, ranging from industrial manufacturing process wastes to batteries and may come in many forms, including liquids, solids gases, and sludges.

Because hazardous waste takes many forms, training is required for individuals responsible for ensuring compliance with hazardous waste regulations, and includes discussion related to proper container management, storage procedures, the use of the hazardous waste manifest and necessary emergency response. It’s also important to remember that different states have different standards, so the training that qualifies in one state won’t always be equivalent to the training for another.

3. OSHA 10 For General Industry

The OSHA 10-hour Outreach Training Program for General Industry is intended to provide entry-level workers information about their rights, employer responsibilities, and how to identify, abate, avoid and prevent job related hazards in the workplace. The training covers a variety of general industry safety and health hazards, which a worker may encounter in the workplace. This is a good introduction to safety and serves as a great way to develop a safety culture for your business.

 4. Fall Protection

 In almost every industry, slip-and-fall and falling from height injuries have been identified as one of the most common. This course is designed for any employee who may be working at heights or any staff that may ever be around some one working at heights. The subject matter of the training should include identifying hazards and risks, ladders, handrails, stairs and basic fall protection equipment.

Training employees and knowing how to use PPE isn’t just good for your employees, it’s good for your bottom line. As reported in 2013 by National Safety Council, “fall from the same level” ($7.94 billion) and “fall to lower level” ($5.35 billion) were the second and third highest injury causes of disabling workplace injuries in 2011.

 5. First Aid

According to OSHA, First Aid refers to medical attention that is usually administered immediately after an injury occurs and at the location where it occurred. It often consists of a one-time, short-term treatment and requires little technology or training to administer. First aid can include cleaning minor cuts, scrapes, or scratches; treating a minor burn; applying bandages and dressings; the use of non-prescription medicine; draining blisters; removing debris from the eyes; massage; and drinking fluids to relieve heat stress.

The benefit of having employees with First Aid training is that they can respond quickly in the event of an accident or injury and help keep a minor problem from escalating into a major one. Also, if First Aid is successfully provided on-site, an employer doesn’t always have to report the accident or injury.

 6. Emergency Action Plan

 OSHA requires every employer to develop an Emergency Action Plans for credible threats to their employees. Threats can include fire, severe weather, earthquake, active shooter, chemical release and many others.

All employees must be trained in how to identify an emergency, their employer’s emergency action plan, warning sounds and identifications, evacuation routes, safe havens, assembly areas and after emergency requirements.

If you don’t have an emergency action plan in place, or aren’t providing the training to your employees, creating a plan and getting the requisite training is a must.

 7. Lock Out /Tag Out

 For employees who use, maintain or inspect energized equipment, lockout tagout procedures can guide an authorized employee through a sequential process that renders a piece of equipment or process safe.

Employees need to be trained to ensure that they know, understand, and follow the applicable provisions of the hazardous energy control procedures. The training must cover at least three areas: aspects of the employer’s energy control program; elements of the energy control procedure relevant to the employee’s duties or assignment; and the various requirements of the OSHA standards related to lockout/tagout.

Compliance with the lockout/ tagout standard prevents an estimated 120 fatalities and 50,000 injuries each year. Workers injured on the job from exposure to hazardous energy lose an average of 24 workdays for recuperation.

Looking for one of these trainings for your employees? Talk to one of our safety advisors today and schedule a site assessment or training program. Arbill is a safety solutions company. We are all about protecting your workers in the workplace. Our mission is to keep workers safe and return them home safely at the end of the day.