by giving Health and Safety training to your staff!

"Slip, trip and fall incidents in the workplace cost 40 employees their lives in 2008-09, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has revealed. The HSE figures show that slips and trips are the most common cause of major workplace injury in UK, and cost society an estimated £800m each year."

Offices can be dangerous. Other work areas more so. Building work used to say how “few” deaths had happened in the building of a bridge, etc. Deaths! How can staff know the dangers of their work without being told? Why think that the “common sense” of one person was the same as another? Did staff have eyes in the back of their head, to make sure they didn’t get killed?

There was not enough information given to staff to let them make good decisions about their safety.  The law now protects people. The aim is to try to make sure that they don’t get hurt or ill in the first place. More importantly, if they do, they now can get enough money to make up for the fact that they may never work again.

Regular Health and Safety training:

• Saves you money by stopping sickness absence - keeps your staff healthy. Stops problems such as bad backs, headaches, wrist strain from starting at all. If they do have pain, lets them know that they have a problem and they can sort it out before it gets worse;
• Saves you money by not being fined £20,000 – you have to give your staff a safe place to work. You have to give them training to keep them safe. If you don’t, you may have to pay a fine of up to £20,000 to the HSE; and
• Saves you money by not being sued by injured/ill staff – training protects you from “no win, no fee” claims. Current and former staff can sue you. They can do so up to 3 years after they have found the health problem (e.g. RSI, industrial deafness).

Health and Safety training will keep your staff safe. Keeping your staff safe and healthy protects your business and turnover. Gap HR Services offers online H&S training for small firms. The training is done by the staff on their own computers. It needs to be done regularly, at least once a year.

What are the benefits of this H&S training?

• The software is used by the Health & Safety Executive, which means that it is the best way the government has found to stop health problems happening
• You only pay for the number of staff you have. You can add new employees as they start. 
• You have a computer record that the staff have passed a test. This shows that they have understood the training. After passing the test, they have to complete a risk assessment for the area where they work. This risk assessment shows risk areas for them and you to deal with before health problems start or get worse. 
• Trainings are flexible. The staff do them at their own computers and work areas. No time is wasted in travelling. Staff can save their training at different stages and go back to it. This means that they can still do client work and meet deadlines.
• They only need to be done once a year.