Best Practices for Employee Participation in an OHSMS (Occupational Health and Safety Management System)

OHSMS Best Practices for Management Leadership and Employee Participation Image

In this article, we’re going to look at some best practices for getting and keeping employee participation in your workplace occupational health and safety management system, or OHSMS.

This is one of a series of articles looking at occupational health and safety management systems (OHSMS). We’ve got links for all the articles at the bottom for you.

The series is based on ANSI Z10, Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems. We recommend that you buy a copy of the Z10 standard for yourself. There’s a lot of great information in it, including many helpful helpful appendixes. And the cost is only $105, a great safety investment for your organization. If you’re looking for something free, you could do worse than download our free 10 Steps to Safety Management infographic.

And now let’s turn our attention to employee participation in your health and safety management system.

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Safety Inspections and Observations: New Online Course Available

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One of the best practices of safety management systems at work is to perform safety inspections and create a system for collecting and acting on safety observations.

To help your organization with that, we’ve just released our new Safety Inspections and Observations training course.

The course provides a helpful overview, which you can use to be proactive in reducing incident rates at your workplace.

For more information about this new course, including a short sample video and a list of the course learning objectives, read on.

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Equipment You’ll Find at a Typical Surface Mine

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The typical surface mine (quarry) has lots of specialized equipment, and each piece has a name that new miners may not be familiar with.

To help you get up to speed fast, we’ve provided a list of common surface mining equipment, along with images and explanations of the equipment’s function and operation.

Not only did we write all the terms down for you below, but we’re also presenting the same information in an interactive, multimedia glossary that you can download for free.

And we through in some tips if you need some MSHA Part 46 Surface Mining training. What’s not to like about all of that?

All of the terms, definitions, and images in this article come from our online MSHA Part 46 “Typical Equipment in a Surface Mine” training course. We’ve included a short sample of that online mining safety course below.

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Physical Characteristics at a Surface Mine Explained

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If you’re new at a surface mine, you’ll notice there’s a lot of specialized language: berm, highwall, pit, and more. If all that lingo has got you longing for understanding, this article is for you. We’re going to explain the terms typically used to describe the physical characteristics in a surface mine.

If you find this helpful, know that you can also download an interactive, multimedia glossary with these terms, definitions, and images, and also know that we’re working on a similar list of definitions (plus another downloadable, interactive glossary) about the typical equipment found at a surface mine as well.

So let’s get right to explaining what all those benches and berms are. You’ll be interested to know that all the terms, definitions, and images came from our online MSHA Part 46 Physical Characteristics of a Surface Mine Training course–we’ve given a short video sample immediately below, too.

We’ve also included a free Guide to MSHA Training Requirements for you below as well.

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9 Great Uses for Mobile Training at Work

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Organizations are becoming increasingly interested in mobile training these days (also called mobile learning and M-learning).

Which is great, because you can use mobile training in a lot of positive ways. But on the other hand, you don’t want to just rush into it, believing that this new technology is the silver bullet that will make training magical in the same way that people made the same claims about radio, TV, movies, filmstrips, video tapes, DVDs, the Internet, and more.

So in this article, we’re going to list out for you some productive ways to use mobile training at work. Please add any additional ones from your experience as well.

You might also want to check out our mobile training apps or our 3 Fundamental Uses for Mobile Safety Training article.

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6 Common Triggers of an OSHA Inspection

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We wrote articles about Hazards OSHA Inspectors Commonly Look for During an OSHA Inspection and What Typically Happens During an OSHA Inspection recently that drew a lot of interest, so we thought we’d continue along those lines by writing this article, which will focus on the most common reasons OSHA will come and inspect your facility.

As always, your comments, insights, and experiences are welcome in the comments section at the bottom. Maybe you’re an OSHA inspector, or maybe you’ve been inspected. Let us know!

Also: We’ve included a free Guide to OSHA Inspections at the bottom of this article for you–don’t forget to download it. 

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Change Management: New Online Course Available

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Change is never easy. That’s true in all walks of life. It’s true at home, and it’s true at work. But a good change management program can help make changes at work go more smoothly, increasing employee understanding and buy-in.

To help you better manage changes at the workplace, we’ve just released our new online Change Management training course.

The course explains several skills and tools that will help your employees better manage changes that lead to increased business success.

For more information about this new course, including a short sample video and a list of the course learning objectives, read on.

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ANSI Z490.2 Update–Upcoming National Standard on Online Safety Training

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Our last update on the development of the ANSI/ASSE Z490.2 standard on virtual or online safety training was in late December.

Since then, the committee met again in mid-January. In the time before the December meeting and the January meeting, several sub-groups had been working on making improvements to different sections of the proposed standard. In particular, we were focusing our efforts on:

  • Section 3: management of the training program
  • Section 4: design & development
  • Section 5: delivery
  • Section 6: evaluation
  • Section 7: recordkeeping and documentation

During the January meeting, the comments from the various sub-sections were integrated into the working version of the standard. No section is in final, perfect shape, but all are advancing and moving forward.

Coming out of the January meeting, the sub-groups were each tasked with doing further work on their sections. I personally am part of a three-person sub-group working on section 4, which focuses on design & development of online EHS training. It’s a big chunk of content and it’s challenging, but a good challenge.

We also decided we’d begin creating lists of terms for the definitions section as well as ideas of things to address in the annex, but would get the standard itself in something closer to final shape before working on either of those.

Our next meeting is scheduled for late February. Stay tuned for updates on that one.

Until then, you may want to buy a copy of the existing ANSI/ASSE z490.1 standard, which puts forward criteria for effective environmental, health, and safety training.

And don’t leave without first downloading our Online Safety Training Buyer’s Guide Checklist. 

Online Safety Training Buyer's Guide Checklist

Online Safety Training Buyer’s Guide Checklist

Learn how to evaluate different online safety training solutions to find one that best fits your company’s needs with our FREE informative guide and checklist.

Download Free Guide

Online Safety Training Buyer's Guide Checklist

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Come Visit Us at the ASSE Puget Sound Professional Development Conference (May 4, 2018, Ellensburg, WA)

ASSE Puget Sound PDC Image

We’ll be exhibiting at the upcoming ASSE Puget Sound Professional Development Conference (PDC) on Friday, May 4 at the lovely campus of Central Washington University.

Come see us in the exhibition area. We’ll be showing off our award-winning solutions for safety and health training, including online safety and health courses, online mining safety/MSHA compliance courses, and learning management systems (LMSs) that help you manage and administer all your training, including tracking, reporting, managing due dates and expirations, and much more.

A quick hat-tip to the folks at the ASSE Puget Sound Chapter for always putting together a great conference. And a second hat-tip to the Central Washington University Safety and Health Management Program, who does a lot of great work as well (speaking of, did you know that Sathy Rajendran was the ASSE’s “Safety Educator of the Year” in 2017?)

In addition to exhibiting at this year’s PDC, Convergence Training’s Senior L&D Specialist Jeff Dalto will be co-presenting along with Morgan Bliss, an Associate Professor at CWU’s Safety and Health Management Program, on some issues related to online safety training.

And feel free to check out the entire presentation schedule, which really looks great!

Between now and then, let us know if we can help with anything, and feel free to download our free Guide to Effective Safety Training, which is based on the ANSI/ASSE Z490.1 standard.

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Effective EHS Training: A Step-by-Step Guide

Learn how to design, create, deliver, and evaluate effective EHS training by following these best practices with our free step-by-step guide.

Download Free Guide

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Come Visit Us at the South Carolina Safety Summit (March 13-15, 2018, Spartansburg, South Carolina)

South Carolina Safety Summit 2018

Come meet us in the Palmetto State for the upcoming South Carolina Safety Summit. The Summit is March 13-15, 2018 in Spartanburg, SC at the Marriott.

We would love to meet you, say hi, see what’s on your mind, and show you some ways we can help you with safety training back at work.

We’ll be showing off our award-winning solutions for safety and health training, including online safety and health coursesonline mining safety/MSHA compliance courses, and learning management systems (LMSs) that help you manage and administer all your training, including tracking, reporting, managing due dates and expirations, and much more.

Between now and then, let us know if we can help with anything, and feel free to download our free Guide to Effective Safety Training, which is based on the ANSI/ASSE Z490.1 standard.

OEE-guide-btn

Effective EHS Training: A Step-by-Step Guide

Learn how to design, create, deliver, and evaluate effective EHS training by following these best practices with our free step-by-step guide.

Download Free Guide

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Come Visit Us at the Wisconsin Annual Safety Congress (Wisconsin Dells, April 16-18, 2018)

Come hang out with us in the land of beer and brats as we attend the Annual Wisconsin Safety Congress this year. The conference is on April 16-18, 2018 in the Wisconsin Dells.

We’ll be in booth 1711 and would love a chance to say hi and get to know you.

We’ll be showing off our award-winning solutions for safety and health training, including online safety and health coursesonline mining safety/MSHA compliance courses, and learning management systems (LMSs) that help you manage and administer all your training, including tracking, reporting, managing due dates and expirations, and much more.

In addition to exhibiting, our Senior Learning & Development Specialist Jeff Dalto will be giving two presentations at the conference. They are:

  1. A six-hour pre-conference workshop to help you tune up your safety training techniques and your safety training program at work
  2. A shorter, one-hour presentation during the conference itself on online safety training

See you there!

 

Between now and then, let us know if we can help with anything, and feel free to download our free Guide to Effective Safety Training, which is based on the ANSI/ASSE Z490.1 standard.

OEE-guide-btn

Effective EHS Training: A Step-by-Step Guide

Learn how to design, create, deliver, and evaluate effective EHS training by following these best practices with our free step-by-step guide.

Download Free Guide

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Voluntary Use of Respirators: New Online Course Available

Voluntary Respirator Use Online Training Image  

There are certain instances at work where employers are not required to provide an employee with a respirator, but the employee chooses to wear and use a respirator and the employer allows it nonetheless. This is known as voluntary use of a respirator, and there are some important things for both the employee and the employer to know about such voluntary use.

To make sure everyone knows what they need to know, we’ve created our new Voluntary Use of Respirators online training course. In particular, the course explains some requirements employers must fulfill in these circumstances.

To learn more about this new course, and to see a short sample video and a list of the course learning objectives, read on.

 

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