This is our second daily summary of the ASSE’s Safety 2017 conference. You can also read our summary of ASSE Safety 2017 Day One.

Here’s a quick overview of some of the presentations I was lucky enough to catch on Wednesday.

Keynote Presentation by Mel Robbins

Confession-I missed this. I stayed in the hotel and wrote the Day One summary. But I DID hear from a handful of people who attended, and they seemed to enjoy it. A key point seemed to be something about facing up to challenges in life, counting to 5, then moving ahead to succeed. Never a bad reminder–keep trying. I’ve been there, to be sure.

Flash Presentation on Safety and Business Excellence by Kathy Seabrook

I have caught a number of presentations framing safety within the context of business excellence and find the idea intriguing. Well done, Kathy.

Critical Hazards Field Guide by Kirk Mahan

Georgia-Pacific has made a strong effort to reduce critical injuries and fatalities and have addressed five critical hazards that they have found lead to most at their facilities. Kirk showed a field guide G-P created to explain those hazards. G-P uses these field guides to spark discussions with workers.

The hazards? Uncontrolled energy, falls from heights, struck by mobile equipment, fires and explosions, and exposures to chemical and/or thermal releases.

Strategic Training Design with a Bar Napkin, a Magic Wand, and Speed Dating

A really good presentation by Sharon Kemerer and Kery Mortenson of Baxter Healthcare of how they created a training program to reduce safety incidents. Got into a lot of good instructional design tips and methods.

The program involved a focus on business goals, a desired end state, impact mapping, and a rapid gap analysis.

The completed training included modules on commitment to safety; high-impact safety conversations; hazard identification; and root-cause analyses.

A good one. Worth searching this PPT out.

Establishing an Electrical Safety Training Program

Paul Zoubek quickly walked us through a handy seven-step program in 15 short minutes. Well done, Paul.

Risk Mitigation and Wearables

I got to this short, 15-minute session a few minutes late and really regretted it, because what I DID hear sounded interesting and had lots of useful information and data. Hats off to speaker Rachel Michael. I’m going to search out her PowerPoint.

Plenary Session on Behavior-Based Safety (BBS) and Human and Organizational Performance (HOP)

This was well-designed and the four-person panel (with one moderator) were really very helpful. This was so interesting I’m going to write a shorter, separate blog post about it shortly, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, did you see this one? What were your thoughts?

Team-Based Safety Training Activities

Instructor Linda Tapp taught us a handful of team-based safety training activities that we could apply in different settings in our own trainings. And, hats off to her, she did so by having us participate in the activities as teams–learning by doing, you know!

A fun and useful session.

Using Real-Life Events and Social Media to Create High-Impact Safety Training

Joseph Sanna and JoAnn Goshorn shared some tips for telling real-life stories and mining social media to create safety training that catches people’s hearts and makes them pay attention.

JoAnn Goshorn shared her family’s own story–her father was injured while cutting down a tree–as a way to demonstrate how accidents affect a large number of people. I admired and appreciated Goshorn for sharing her story.

What about You?

What sessions did you see? Let us know in the comments section below. And we hope to see you today!

And help yourself to the free guide below, which is based in large part on ASSE/ANSI Z490.1.

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In this article, we set out to explain how to operate a forklift. If you’ve been wanting to learn how to drive a forklift, then this is a great starting point for you.

You’ll learn valuable and helpful information in this article, but please know that you won’t know how to drive a forklift safely just as a result of reading this article. That takes more extensive forklift operator training, including demonstrations from a skilled instructor, practice forklift operation by you, and a forklift operator skill demonstration evaluated by your instructor.

But, as we said, if you’re looking for a great and helpful 101-level introduction of how to operate a forklift, then you’re in the right place.

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According to an OSHA Powered Industrial Trucks (Forklifts) eTool:

Only trained and competent operators shall be permitted to operate a powered industrial truck.

But what are the OSHA forklift training requirements? When is a person eligible for an OSHA forklift certification?

We explain everything you need to know about OSHA forklift training in this article. So if you want to know the OSHA forklift certification requirements, strap on your seat belt and spend the next couple of minutes with us.

PLUS, if you scroll to the bottom of this article, you’ll see a big black download button that you can use to download four forklift inspection and refueling/recharging checklists. All for free. What a bargain! 

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Need to know how to get a forklift license?

In this article, we spell out everything you need to know about getting a forklift operator’s license. We’ll keep it short and to the point, we promise.

Enjoy the article and good luck

PLUS, as an added bonus, there’s a big black download button at the bottom of this article that you give click to download four forklift inspection and refueling/recharging checklists. If you’re a safety manager at work, you know how great this is. If you’re not, download the checklists anyway, give them to your safety manager, and make his or her day.

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If you want a workplace that’s healthier and safer,  health and safety management systems are key.

Here’s how OSHA puts it in their Recommended Practices for Safety and Health Programs:

Establishing a safety and health program in your workplace is one of the most effective ways of protecting your most valuable asset: your workers.

And here’s how ANSI Z10, the national standard for Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems, puts it:

There is widespread agreement that the use of management systems can improve organizational performance, including performance in the occupational health and safety arena.

In this article, we’ll explain what a health and safety management system is, list the key elements of a health and safety management system, give you tips for getting a health and safety system in place at your work, and provide some additional helpful resources.

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In this article, we’ve pulled together a series of forklift safety tips for forklift operators. Putting these forklift safety tips into action should help your company reduce risks associated with forklift operation.

As you’ll see, some of the most important things you can do are to ensure that all employees receive proper forklift operator training, make sure all forklift are in proper operating condition through regular inspections and maintenance, and perform workplace hazard assessments to ensure a workplace that reduces forklift-associated hazards.

To help with this, we’ve included some helpful checklists at the bottom for performing forklift inspections and recording fuel use/battery charging on forklifts.

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